Municipal solid waste management in South Africa: from waste to energy recovery through waste-to-energy technologies in Johannesburg

ABSTRACT

“Waste-to-energy” (WTE) technologies have been presented as one of the avenues to improve the management of solid waste whilst promoting clean and healthy urban environments through the recovery of waste and generation of energy. Research suggests that with the right investment in technologies and institutional changes, waste can potentially become a resource that can contribute to the socio-economic development of cities. It is in this context that this paper presents a review of the literature on WTE technologies and their implications on sustainable waste management in urban areas. The paper particularly contributes to our understanding of WTE technologies and its potential on Municipal Solid Waste Management (MSWM) in Johannesburg, South Africa. It is estimated that the city of Johannesburg’s landfills airspace will be completely depleted by year 2023. This projection becomes a motivation for the identification of suitable WTE alternative avenues to manage waste in the city. The paper argues that WTE technologies can contribute significantly to sustainable waste management, economic growth, ecological and environmental well-being.     

Biorefinery study of availability of agriculture residues and wastes for integrated biorefineries in Brazil

Brazil has a great potential for use renewable raw materials in biorefineries. It is one of the largest producers of agricultural and animal commodities, which produce large amounts of residues and wastes. These agricultural residues and animal waste can be effectively transformed to energy and other products in systems similar to a ethanol refinery where an integrated process involves conversion for biomass into fuel, energy and chemicals, integrated in the context of a biorefinery. The objective of this work is the determination of the actual availability of main agricultural residues and animal wastes generated in Brazil and of their generation potential index and their prospects for 2020. The results indicate that the sugarcane has the highest agronomic availability, reaching 157 million tons of fresh material and an estimated reuse potential of 19.6 million tons (dry basis), followed by soybeans, rice, maize, orange, wheat, cotton, cassava and tobacco.     

废旧电脑拆解工艺与资源化案例研究

以某再生资源公司的废旧电脑拆解为案例进行研究,介绍了工艺技术、拆解回收各种资源的数据。研究结果表明,我国废旧电脑人工拆解-破碎-冶炼相结合的工艺,是电子废弃物循环利用、资源高效回收、减少环境风险的较好工艺技术,符合固废处理的3R(替代、减少、优化)原则。     

某核设施退役产生的低放废物整备

为了对经多年暂存且受“5．12”地震影响的放射性废物包装体运输到国家规定处置场进行处置,需对待运输的放射性废物包装体进行整备以达到运输和暂存的要求,待整备的放射性废物采用符合标准要求的放射性废物整备工艺流程处理后,尤其是对放射性泥土和已损坏或变形严重的包装体采用自主研发的工艺进行整备后,放射性废物包装体达到了相关标准要求,满足了放射性物质安全运输规定和放射性废物体和废物包的特性鉴定要求,放射性废物整备运输后减轻了项目实施单位的废物暂存压力。     

Fenton氧化技术处理含苯胺固体废渣的可行性研究

研究了Fenton催化氧化法对工业固体废渣中苯胺的去除效能,优化了其在固相处理体系中的反应条件,并分析了各影响因子的作用机理和综合反应机理及应用的关键控制步骤.结果表明,在固相反应体系中,采用Fenton催化氧化法处理工业固体废渣中苯胺的最佳反应条件为:pH值3.0,50 g渣样中H2O2流加速率为0.5～1.0 mL·min-1,30%H2O2投加量为1.1 mL·g-1(以干渣计,下同),Fe2 的投加量为0.012 mmol·g-1(以干渣计,下同),分2～3次投加Fenton试剂,药剂投加完后继续反应30min.在此条件下固体废物中苯胺的去除率达99.86%,从而为后续的稳定化及固化处理和进入安全填埋场进行安全填埋处理提供了前提保障.     

源分类家庭有机垃圾及其堆肥产品中的PAHs

将源分类家庭生物有机垃圾同秸秆按质量比10:1混合后进行堆肥处理,应用气相色谱-质谱联用仪(GC-MS)按照U.S.EPA 8270方法对生物有机垃圾及其堆肥产品中16种PAHs进行分析测试,比较生物有机垃圾及其堆肥产品中16种PAHs含量、分布及生物降解率,评估堆肥产品PAHs农田风险,综合论述影响家庭有机垃圾堆肥过程中PAHs降解因素,为生物有机垃圾堆肥农田利用提供依据.结果表明,源分类家庭生物有机垃圾及其堆肥产品中∑PAH16化合物含量分别为2.19和1.96mg/ks(以干重计,下同),其中萘、芴、菲、荧蒽含量相对较高,占总量的79.76%和81.76%,这4种有机物的苯环在2-3之间,属于易降解非致癌物质,在农田施用中易被降解;在生物垃圾堆肥过程中∑PAH16的生物降解率为25.88%,堆肥后产品PAHs含量符合农田使用标准.     

将混凝技术应用于大规模污水处理

介绍采用混凝技术大规模处理运河污水时所遇到的一些问题,以及一些生产经验,提出在设施、设备及工艺方面的相应解决办法。强调设备维护、员工技能和管理机制在生产中的重要性,提出科学地进行设备日常维护的方法。通过小试验,提出对东莞运河水污染治理的一点设想,并解释工程中混凝反应需要足够搅拌力度的问题。     

Characteristic and mercury adsorption of activated carbon produced by CO2 of chicken waste

Preparation of activated carbon from chicken waste is a promising way to produce a useful adsorbent for Hg removal. A three-stage activation process （drying at 200℃, pyrolysis in N2 atmosphere, followed by CO2 activation） was used for the production of activated samples. The effects of carbonization temperature （409-4500℃）, activation temperature （700-900℃）, and activation time （1-2.5 h） on the physicochemical properties （weight-loss and BET surface） of the prepared carbon wereinvestigated. Adsorptive removal of mercury from real flue gas onto activated carbon has been studied. The activated carbon from chicken waste has the same mercury capacity as commercial activated carbon （Darco LH） （Hg^v： 38.7% vs. 53.5%, Hg^0： 50.5% vs. 68.8%）, although its surface area is around 10 times smaller, 89.5 m^2/g vs. 862 m^2/g. The low cost activated carbon can be produced from chicken waste, and the procedure is suitable.     

Enhancement of anaerobic biodegradability of flower stem wastes with vegetable wastes by co-hydrolysis

The vegetable wastes and flower stems were co-digested to evaluate the anaerobic hydrolysis performance of difficultly biodegradable organic wastes by introducing readily biodegradable organic wastes. The experiments were carried out in batches. When the vegetable wastes were mixed with the flower stems at the dry weight ratio of 1 to 13, the overall hydrolysis rate increased by 8%, 12%, and 2% according to the carbon, nitrogen, and total solid （TS） conversion rate, respectively. While the dry weight ratio was designed as 1 to 3, there was a respective rise of 5%, 15%, and 4% in the conversion rate of carbon, nitrogen, and TS. The enhancement of anaerobic hydrolysis from the mixed vegetable wastes and flower stems can be attributed to the formation of volatile fatty acids （VFA） and nutrient supplement like nitrogen content. The maximum VFA concentration can achieve 1.7 g/L owing to the rapid acidification of vegetable wastes, loosing the structure of lignocellulose materials. The statistic bivariate analysis revealed that the hydrolysis performance was significantly related to the physical and biochemical compositions of the feeding substrate. Especially, the soluble carbon concentration in the liquid was significantly positively correlated to the concentration of nitrogen and hemicellulose, and negatively correlated to the concentration of carbon and lignocellulose in the feeding substrate, suggesting that the regulation and control of feedstock can have an important influence on the anaerobic hydrolysis of organic wastes.     

新型堆肥生物反应器人粪便堆肥功效的评价

利用以锯末为载体的Bio-Lux S15型生态卫生设备,对人粪便进行了连续性堆肥实验,考察了BOD5、粪大肠菌和蛔虫卵的灭活以及最终产品N、P和K等肥料成分的含量。实验结果表明,最初30 d,BOD5的累积去除率由27%快速增加到50%,之后的30 d维持在50%左右,随后下降至40%左右。生态卫生设备中维持50-60℃的温度是杀灭粪便病原微生物的适宜条件,可保证粪便投入后在24 h内,粪大肠菌的灭活率达到99.99%,蛔虫卵的灭活率在2 h内达100%。对反应周期内载体的N、P和K等肥料成分的分析结果表明,反应过程中3种肥分都持续积累,在反应末期,按TN、P2O5和K2O计算的3种肥分最终分别达到25.1、123.4和2.0 g/kg,基本上达到了农用肥料的国家标准,表明以锯末为载体的反应器具有良好的堆肥效果。