Emissions from baled waste during seasonal and temporarily storage for energy recovery in Sweden: conclusion of a four year study

Abstract

Baling of solid waste for the purpose of incineration has been shown to be a stable temporary
method for the storage of waste. Pervious work has concentrated on the gaseous emission during
storage in particularly CO2, and CH4. However, baling of waste has associated problems in the
shape of odours and volatile organic compounds (VOC) emissions. This paper describes the
experimental results which resulted from a large scale experiment of VOCs emissions from 24
bales which contained waste from the same source. The bales were grouped according to their
shape as rectangular and cylindrical. Each group consisted of four multiples of variation, which
included baled waste wrapped with six layers of Low density polyethylene (LDPE)-normal
plastic cover- bales wrapped with twelve layers of LOPE, bales with no plastic cover and bales
containing waste mixed with four litres of silage additive and wrapped with six layers. In total 24
boxes were built 12 boxes for rectangular bales and 12 for cylindrical bales. The boxes where
made to be air tight, however 2 holes ( 4+/-0.5) cm in diameter were created to allow the pressure
inside the box to stabilize. The emissions were sampled using Tenax© stainless steel tubes, as
well as Carbosive glass absorption tubes. The tubes were analysed by Thermal desorption gas
chromatography mass spectroscopy TD-GC-MS, along side liquid-injection-GC-MS. The
emissions profiles was used to predict the "real-life" emissions from large waste bale storage
using various dispersion models. The object is to analyse the VOC impact on the surrounding
environment during the storage of baled waste. This paper will also include a conclusion form a 4
year study on the storage of waste using the baling technique.