From Waste Power Generation and RDF Utilization to Biomass Power Generation and SRF (June 1998)

From Waste Power Generation and RDF Utilization to Biomass Power Generation and SRF (June 1998)

Waste power generation using refuse derived fuel (RDF) attracted attention as a pioneer of a recycling-oriented society in the 1990s, but was later developmentally succeeded by "biomass power generation" and "solid recycled fuel (SRF)" as the technology developed and systems were put in place.

RDF was made from municipal waste and waste plastics, but concerns about corrosion and dioxin generation due to chlorine components during combustion persisted, and maintenance and management costs also became an issue. This experience prompted a shift to "biomass power generation," which utilizes purer organic resources such as woody biomass and food residues. In particular, the enactment of the Basic Law for Establishing a Recycling-based Society in 2002 and the Biomass Nippon Comprehensive Strategy (2002) have encouraged the use of agricultural and forestry by-products and livestock waste for power generation throughout Japan.

On the other hand, SRF (Solid Recovered Fuel) has emerged as the successor to RDF, which is characterized by the fact that it is made from carefully selected plastic and paper waste in the manufacturing process and meets the calorific value and composition standards based on European standards (CEN standards), and its use in cement plants and as boiler fuel has expanded. The use of this technology has expanded at cement plants and as fuel for boilers. This led to the institutionalization of the concept of waste as "recyclable fuel" rather than "burnable waste.

Technologically, the adoption of fluidized bed furnaces and gasification melting furnaces, advanced exhaust gas treatment technology, and more efficient heat recovery systems have advanced, and waste power generation has been refined toward the goal of both reducing environmental impact and using energy. These trends were later combined with the spread of renewable energy through the feed-in tariff (FIT) system, laying the foundation for biomass and waste energy to play a role as a form of renewable energy.

In other words, although the RDF power generation project in Tohoku faced many challenges on its own, this experience led to the use of biomass power generation and SRF, and became an important starting point for Japan's "waste-to-energy" policy.