Utilization of Refuse Derived Fuels by the United States Navy,

The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act and the Safe Drinking Water Act are forcing those in charge of landfills to adhere to more stringent operating standards. This, along with the growing scarcity of landfill availability, makes the use of landfills less desirable for solid waste disposal. As such, new disposal methods that are environmentally safe and economically practical must be found. One alternative, that is not really new but which has gained renewed interest, is incineration. The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act also requires that government agencies should direct their installations to recover as many resources as possible. Therefore if incineration is to be implemented, heat recovery should be incorporated into the system. There are several processes available to convert raw refuse into a fuel for use in a heat recovery system. Refuse derived fuels RDF can be in the form of raw refuse, densified refuse, powdered refuse, gas, or pyrolytic oil. The only form of RDF that is economically feasible for systems designed to process less than 200 TPD tons per day is raw refuse. Most Navy bases generate far less than 200 TPD of solid waste and therefore the Navy has focused most of its attention on modular heat recovery incinerator HRI systems that utilize raw refuse as fuel.