Database for "Estimation of the Energy Recovery and Emission Potential of Typically Incinerated Norwegian Waste Classes"

A great challenge for waste-to-energy power plants is their uncertain and variable feedstock, which
can lead to the power plants not being run as efficiently as possible, leading to reduced energy
output and control of emissions. A way to describe the feedstock is to use surrogates. This is a
method where the hundreds or thousands of different species of a feedstock are modelled using a few
surrogate species, enabling the feedstock’s modelling. The surrogates also provide an estimation
of the HHV and the fraction of biomass, oil-based waste and inorganics.
This thesis formulated surrogates for waste classes typically incinerated, using a linear least-square
solution between available surrogate species and experimental values. Most of the species used
were from two existing models in the literature, but three new species were created to improve the
representation of some waste classes containing fossil-originated wastes, rubber and PET. These
were made by creating reactions based on experimental data from the literature and then testing
these reactions under pyrolysis conditions in a stochastic reactor model.
The surrogates for the waste classes were formulated by first dividing the waste into components
and then finding the surrogate formulation for each component. There were found surrogates
for 41 components, which were used to create the surrogate formulation for 30 waste classes. It
was found that most of the surrogates modelled the elemental composition accurately compared
to experimental values. A statistical overview of the experimental and model data for the waste
classes was also created. This overview is relevant for stakeholders in waste management and for
other research, such as life-cycle analysis.