Green refuse derived fuel preparation and combustion performance from the solid residues to build the zero-waste city

Highlights: • Green-RDF was proposed and prepared from waste materials completely. • ADS was used to substitute the chemical binder for green-RDF preparation. • IDR was employed as an effective additive for flue gas control during RDF combustion. • SO₂ and NO_x was reduced through the adsorption and redox reaction with IDR additives. The re-utilization or recycling of waste completely was a big task to build the zero-waste city, and refuse derived fuel (RDF) preparation might be a potential way to recycle those variations organic wastes from industry and municipal sector, while the chemical binder was usually employed to match the mechanical property of RDF. In this work, a green-RDF was developed using wastes with different sources directly. Resin-like industrial solid waste, i.e., automotive stamping gaskets and electronic packing wastes (AE = 56%), anaerobic digestion sludge (ADS = 24%) and industrial desiccant residue (IDR = 20%), were selected and optimized to prepare green-RDF based on the previous market survey and characteristics analysis. The extending rate (ER), impact resistance index (IRI), and lower heating value (LHV) was 17.51%, 116.67% and 6.84 MJ/kg. The combustion performance of RDF was operated through TG/DSC-MS and combustion simulator with on-line FTIR gas analyzer simultaneously. The releasing temperature range for SO₂ and NO_x was narrowed to 211–401 °C and 212–803 °C, with the SO₂ and NO_x reduction of 63% and 26%, respectively, since IDR additives contributed to fixation of them in the residues through the chemical adsorption and oxidation reduction reaction. Green-RDF might be a promising method for the energy recovery from solid waste with different sources.