Opportunities and challenges of using SRF as an alternative fuel in the cement industry

Abstract

Over two billion tonnes of municipal solid wastes (MSW) are generated annually from households, industrial facilities, and commercial sites. The non-hazardous fraction of MSW is used to produce solid recovered fuels (SRF), which have an economic and environmental value when used as a substitute for fossil fuel burning in industrial facilities. Cement manufacturing plants are among the SRF end-users. SRF co-processing in cement kiln systems has been tested and evaluated for several years and has shown promising results. Cement companies intend further to improve the co-processing technology, considering the massive and increasing amount of solid waste generation, stringent environmental regulations, and economic benefits. SRF utilization in the cement industry has been experimented with using different tactics. Improving SRF characteristics through different pre-processing methods covers one side of this picture. Investigating the engineering and technical potential of SRF combustion in high-temperature cement kiln systems covers the other side. This review article provides a state-of-art description of SRF co-processing in cement manufacturing plants and discusses challenges in this area.