BMW DIVERSION RATES – TRANSFERRING LABORATORY RESULTS TO FULL-SCALE PLANTS
Ursula Kepp and Amaya Arias-Garcia
RPS Group PLC
(free)
The EU Landfill Directive aims to reduce the pollution potential from landfilled waste and its
contribution to climate change. The directive defines targets for the reduction of organic material
disposed of to landfill. Waste treatment can be by incineration or biological stabilisation including
both aerobic composting and anaerobic digestion processes. The majority of installations in the
UK are currently based on aerobic processes but anaerobic processes are increasingly being
considered. Technology suppliers often refer to results achieved in other countries, using
different test methods than those implemented by the Environment Agency (EA). For the EA the
key is the difference in methane potential of the raw waste and the residuals generated by initial
screening and after treatment. Waste composition is an important parameter influencing the
results. The paper addresses the impact of easily degradable substances on the overall diversion
rate. Assessing the process performance of planned installations on diversion rates of methane
potential is very difficult and a suggestion is made to calculate the theoretical potential and define
guarantees for planned installations on the methane potential of treated waste.
KEYWORDS
Composting, anaerobic digestion, methane potential, organic municipal waste
