An approach to determining the economic feasibility of refuse-derived fuel and materials recovery processing

An approach for determining the economic feasibility of refuse-derived fuel production and the recovery of various materials is demonstrated, using data developed for the metropolitan Washington, D.C., area as input. The processing facility, designed to handle 650 tpd of refuse, is described. Since materials revenues can be predicted with a higher degree of certainty than refuse fuel revenues, it is necessary to determine what revenues the sale of solid waste fuel will have to generate for projected economics to be the same as an alternative disposal practice. (1 diagram, 8 references, 6 tables)