Académique Documents
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56, 2003
INDUSTRIAL ECOLOGY
L. G. Fedorov
In the recycling and disposal of solid household wastes (SHW) from cities, an important stage is the transportation
from the points of collection to the processing or transfer stations.
In the existing technology, small or medium-tonnage garbage vehicles ship the SHW from the premises to transfer sta-
tions [2], at which the wastes are consolidated for subsequent transportation by larger vehicles to disposal or recycling points.
Two methods are used to compact the SHW:
compaction in waste-handling containers;
briquetting by pressing on specialized mechanical or hydraulic presses [3].
These methods have advantages and shortcomings. For example, compaction directly in the vehicle is cheaper, but
the storage in marshaling areas is more expensive. The cost of compaction into dense briquettes is greater, but then they can
be transported by ordinary trucks, and stacking the briquettes on the area is much cheaper than compacting ordinary garbage
with special techniques. There is consequently a lower cost per unit in constructing the transfer stations, running the vehicles,
and operating the presses to briquette the SHW, as well as a reduction in the cost of the entire system for dumping the wastes.
The mean annual composition of the SHW briquettes in wt.% is as follows: paper and cardboard 37.5; food wastes
25.0; textiles 5.5; metals 5.5; ceramics and stones 5.0; wood chips and sawdust 4.5; plastics and polymers 4.0; glass 3.5;
leather and rubber 1.5; and other minor wastes 8.0. The pressed briquettes with that composition usually have adequate
strength and retain their shape during transportation and unloading. On the other hand, there is seasonal instability in the
SHW composition, with fluctuations in water content and environmental temperature often leading to the briquettes disinte-
grating during shipping.
This requires briquetting research to obtain working formulas, technical characteristics of the presses, methods of
evaluating briquette strength, and ways of determining the density and pressing pressure.
One can use data on the mechanics of such solid media used in processes in chemical engineering [4], including the
theory of powder pressing [5]. One needs to incorporate the aspects of SHW deformation related to the structure and links
between the components, as well as to the physicomechanial and rheological properties.
Qualitative Phenomena in Pressure Compaction. In the initial loose state, there are mainly adhesion interactions
between the components in this type of system due to mechanical forces, and also on account of the bonds due to bonding
and cementing materials.
There are several stages in the bonding between the components during mechanical compaction under pressure.
First (initial) stage: here there are mainly deformations in the structure due to the elimination of holes, the dis-
placement of gas, the behavior of any liquid components, and the transition of the solid parts into relatively dense packing.
As the pressure increases, the proportion of the structural deformations decreases, and instead shearing deformations begin
to predominate, which are accompanied by shape changes and disruption in the hard fragments and surrounding more plas-
tic materials. These deformations increase the number of surface contacts and produce conditions favorable to bonding
between the components in the subsequent stages. In the first stage, the individual components do not have time to form a
State Unitary Enterprise kotekhprom. Translated from Khimicheskoe i Neftegazovoe Mashinostroenie, No. 6,
pp. 3942, June, 2003.
358
Fig. 1. Technological curve for SHW pressing.
Figure 1 shows that at first increases sharply from some initial value i, and then less rapidly; the density tends
asymptotically to a certain constant value max as the pressure increases.
This curve may be expressed in the form of the pressing equation.
Various researchers have derived pressing equations by treating experimental curves or deriving the results analyti-
cally from a physical basis [4]. In the latter case, the experiments are used to determine the constants in the equation and to
check their applicability and confirm the assumptions.
An empirical equation has been proposed to describe the pressing curve (Fig. 1) in order to calculate the density as
a function of pressure, which in dimensionless form is
k = a bexp(cp), (1)
where k = /i is the compression coefficient, a, b, and c are dimensionless constant coefficients; p = p0 /p1; p1 = 1 MPa; and
p0 is the pressing pressure.
The a, b, and c in (1) are derived from the experimental curve as follows.
With p0 = 0, = i and k = 1; and for p0 , = max and k = kmax = max/i; then a = kmax, b = kmax1.
If d /dp = tan for p0 = 0, then
d dk
dp p=0
dp p=0
c= = .
max min kmax 1
For p0 d /dp = dk /dp 0, which agrees with (1), which thus becomes
359
Fig. 2. Working scheme.
where x, y, and z are the normal components of the stress tensor, with the lateral pressure coefficient;
no allowance is made for the effects of the air in the material and possible temperature changes.
With these assumptions, the working scheme is as in Fig. 2; consider the equilibrium of an elementary layer of the
material. The forces acting on it produce an equation for equilibrium along the z axis as
where B and L are the dimensions in the xOy plane orthogonal to the z axis, while 1fr and 2fr are the external friction stress-
es at the walls of the matrix respectively in the yOz and xOz planes.
The material slides over the die during the pressing, and the contacts frictional stresses obey the law of dry friction
(Coulomb law), so
1fr = 1y2fr = 2x, (5)
where 1 and 2 are the coefficients of external friction at the surfaces correspondingly of the die and the piston.
If 1 = 2 = fr, we have from (3) and (5) that
dp 2ffr ( L + B)
= dz . (7)
p LB
360
The right-hand side in (7) contains the product of ffr and , each of which is a variable dependent not only on the prop-
erties of the material but also on the pressure or density. As the pressure increases, fr falls, while increases. Then one can
assume that the product fr is constant within the pressure range used in the material. For SHW, fr is usually 0.100.25.
We integrate (7) and use the boundary condition p = p0 at z = 0 to get
2 f ( L + B)
p = p0 exp fr z , (8)
LB
2 f ( L + B) H
pb = p0 exp fr , (9)
LB
z
p = p0 exp 4 ffr . (10)
B
Then (2) and (8) allow one to determine the density as a function of height from the pressing equation:
L + B
k = kmax ( kmax 1) exp cp0 exp 2 ffr z . (11)
LB
REFERENCES
1. N. F. Abramov and A. D. Sokolov, Performance of garbage-handling stations in the Moscow public cleansing sys-
tem, Chistyi Gorod, No. 1, 26 (2003).
2. L. G. Fedorov, Trends in the garbage-handling stations in Moscow region, Chistyi Gorod, No. 2, 610 (1998).
3. L. G. Fedorov, Managing Solid Household Wastes in Large Cities and Processing Systems in the Latter [in Russian],
Izd. Prima-Press, Moscow (1999).
4. G. M. Zhdanovich, Metal Powder Pressing Theory [in Russian], Metallurgiya, Moscow (1969).
5. M. B. Generalov, Mechanics of Solid Dispersed Media in Chemical Engineering Processes [in Russian], Izd.
Bochkarevoi, Kaluga (2002).
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