Power production from waste and biomass IV: Advanced concepts and technologies

The seminar on Power Production from Waste and Biomass IV, with emphasis on advanced concepts and technologies, was held on 8-10 April 2002 in Espoo, Finland. The meeting was organised by VTT Processes in co-operation with EC DG TREN, Novem (from the Netherlands), IEA Bioenergy Task 36, Tekes and the Finnish Ministry of Trade and Industry. Overviews of the European waste policies, waste management and waste-to-energy practices were given. Most of the relevant directives were presented including the directive concerning integrated pollution prevention and control (IPPC). The directive on waste incineration and its practical implications for fluid bed combustion and gasification of solid recovered fuels were discussed actively in the meeting. An overview of traditional massburning of mixed waste was given. The main focus, however, was on advanced process concepts and technologies. For example, in Finland, recovered fuel production and cofiring, based on either direct combustion in fluid bed boilers or pregasification, have been introduced successfully at several power plants. Fuel specifications are controlled by the Finnish recovered fuel standard. In Europe, a project for preparing the future CEN standard was presented and discussed. Experiences and R&D activities in the areas of fluid bed combustion and gasification, including gas cleaning and monitoring practices, were presented. Modern waste-to-energy concepts will play an important role in advanced waste management business concepts. Future integrated waste recycling and energy production concepts, based on source separation and recovered fuel production, were presented. New R&D results were also presented concerning additional paper and plastic recovery from commercial and industrial waste, typically packaging waste. National waste management policies and practices in the Netherlands and in Finland were presented based on the bilateral information exchange between Novem of the Netherlands and Tekes of Finland. The proceedings include the presentations given by the key speakers and other invited speakers, as well as papers based on some of the poster presentations.