Could floc fuel escape WID?
SOURCE: CIWM, JUNE 2009
The 2010 and 2013 landfill diversion deadlines are already looming large and spawning a host of alternative treatment technologies. Some of these (particularly variants of MBT/MHT) produce a type of shredded waste in the form of ‘fluff’ or ‘floc’ which, with its high calorific value, makes a useful fuel. The floc can then be burned as RDF in its own right in compliance with WID (e.g. in cement kilns), or it can form the feedstock for gasification.
But does it always have to be seen as a waste? In the OSS case the Court of Appeal commented favourably upon a decision in the Dutch courts concerning an operation where mixed waste was shredded, screened, homogenised, and pressed into energy pellets. The Dutch courts concluded that the pellets were equivalent to regular fuels and were therefore not ‘waste’.
The English Court of Appeal commented that it “saw no reason to doubt the correctness of that decision”.
So long as the makeup of the material meets the legal test (and avoids, for example, heavy metals being an issue), there is no reason in principle why such refuse-derived fuels cannot become non-waste products.
With the continuing growth in alternative technology, a non-waste outlet for suitable RDFs seems inevitable and indeed worthy of encouragement.
AUTHOR: Vincent Brown
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