Abstract

Solid waste management has become an evergrowing problem world-wide due to rapid urbanization andpopulation growth. South Africa was found to have generated59 million tons of general waste in 2011 with the Western Capegenerating 675kg/capita/annum. The convention ofmanagement has been that of landfilling, however this methodis fast becoming insignificant due to the lack of space anddetrimental nature to environment. In light of the energysecurity issue South Africa is facing, and the global drive offinding alternate sources of fuel with the depletion of fossil fuel,attention has turned to MSW as a sustainable source of energywhile remediating its effect on the environment.Thermochemical conversions of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW),thus presents an attractive means of harnessing the potentialvalue in this waste stream thus thermochemical conversion posean attractive means of converting this waste stream intovaluable fuel products. Study was conducted making use ofRDF pellets produced from the MSW. Pellet density was variedby varying the starch binder to MSW ratio, thus the effect ofthis on energy content and thermal degradation behavior wasstudied. The energy content of MSW in Cape Town wasinvestigated using a bomb calorimeter and the thermaldegradation behavior was studied using ThermogravimetricAnalysis (TGA). The MSW calorific value was found to averageat 19MJ/kg and 3 distinguishable major mass loss regions werefound between temperatures 55 – 265oC, 270 - 410oC and 410 -502oC. The total mass reduction was found to be 76%.