Assessment of popular techniques for co-processing municipal solid waste in Chinese cement kilns

Highlights

• Municipal solid waste (MSW) was fermented, screened, gasified, then co-processed.

• Co-processing MSW in cement kilns could cause excessive pollutant emissions.

• Bypass flue gas can be disposed of through the main flue system.

• Popular MSW co-processing methods do not affect cement quality.

Abstract

Cement kiln co-processing techniques have been developed in the past 20 years in China, and more than 60 factories now use fermentation, screening, and gasification pre-treatment techniques to co-process municipal solid waste (MSW). There three complete MSW pre-treatment techniques, co-processing procedures, and environmental risk assessments have been described in few publications. In this study, we assessed the effectiveness of each technique. The results suggested that the pollutant content released by each pre-treatment technology was lower than the emission standard. To reveal the mechanisms of pollutant migration and enrichment, the substances in the kiln and kiln products are investigated. The input of co-processing materials (Co-M) produced by fermentation caused formation of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofuran (PCDD/Fs) in the bypass flue gas (By-gas) in excess of the regulatory standard. The Co-M input produced by the screening and gasifier technologies caused the total organic carbon (TOC) concentration to exceed the standard. In addition, the NO_x, TOC, and PCDD/Fs in the By-gas exceeded the regulatory standard. Raw meal was the primary chlorine and heavy metals input stream, and clinker (CK) and cement kiln dust (CKD) accounted for>90% of the total chlorine output stream. Flue gas and CKD were the primary volatile heavy metal (Hg) output streams. Greater than 70% of the semi-volatile heavy metals (Cd, Pb, Tl and Se) distributed in hot raw meal and bypass cement kiln dust. The low-volatility heavy metals were concentrated in the CK. These results indicated that co-processing techniques used in China still require improvement.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

Cement kiln / Co-processing / Environmental risk assessment / By-pass system

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Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (2019YFC1906900), Chinese Central Public Welfare Research Project (2019YSKY-016).

Author contributions

All authors contributed to writing this manuscript. All authors have approved the final version of the manuscript.

Electronic Supplementary Material

Supplementary material is available in the online version of this article at https://doi.org/10.1007/s11783-021-1485-4 and is accessible for authorized users.

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