Effect of Mechanical-Biological Pretreatment on the Characteristics of MSW in China: A Thermogravimetric Assessment

MBT is a relevant method used as a pretreatment technique for MSW, especially for the MSW with high organic content and high moisture content. As the MBT method can greatly reduce the weight and water content of MSW, the properties and combustion characteristics of original and treated MSW would be very different. The treated MSW has a lower weight and moisture content compared to the original. The total weigh decreases by 30% and the percentage of water decreases by 16%. Meanwhile, percentages of combustible contents increase by 13%. Changes in the concentrations of treated MSW result in a high LHV of 7362 kJ kg^-1 while the LHV of original MSW is 2468 kJ kg^-1. Larger particles of treated MSW have a much higher volatile matter content, but a lower fixed carbon content and ash content. As for the LHV, it was declined with diameters. TGA is used here to evaluate the effect of MBT on the combustion characteristics of MSW. Results of TGA show that with the exception of one original MSW sample, other samples all have three peaks in their DTG curves with the maximum DTG values approximately occur at 290°C, 440°C and 650°C, respectively.