Shredding of RDF, TDF and SRF

July 19, 2021 News

Energy recovery via RDF shredder machine in a power plant producing from refuse-derived fuels is prevalent in 1990. Tons of waste dormant in landfills are not reusable or recyclable but can be a great source of fuel because they contain a high caloric value. Similar to RDF shredder machine, TDF shredding and SRF shredding use two shaft shredders to downsize the waste. In the end, they are all convertible to energy by an alternative fuel production plant.

Understand the Difference of MSW/RDF/TDF/SRF

MSW: Abbreviation of municipal solid waste, commonly collected from post-consumer and commercial waste.
RDF: Abbreviation of refuse-derived fuel, which is similar to SRF but more generic.
TDF: Abbreviation of tire-derived fuel. It mainly consists of end-of-life tires.
SRF: Solid recovered fuel (SRF) is a high-quality alternative to fossil fuel and is produced from mainly commercial waste including paper, woods, textiles, and plastics.

As a conclusion, we can screen and sort RDF (refused-derived fuel) and SRF (solid recovered fuel) out from MSW (municipal solid waste). TDF is a specific waste mainly made of tires.

Treatment of MSW and MSW Shredding

It is not advised to burn or pelletize MSW, because it often contains a high level of moisture which hinders its efficiency in a power plant. A preshredder is needed to debale and scramble to the waste. Next, the stream materials go to a series of shredding machines to achieve a proper size.

A better way is to sort, pre-shred and shred to achieve a proper size and a low level of contamination. After this, a machine briquettes the shredded particles to cubes.

TDF and SRF are refined waste after screening and sorting. The former is comprised of various models and applications of tires, while the latter is mixed combustible waste.

rdf shredder

TDF shredder machine and SRF shredder machine are the first steps to downsize the waste, before making pellets. Often, the size reduction process takes 2 steps shredding: primary shredding (to get 60-100mm) and secondary shredding (to get 40mm).

TDF Shredder machine and SRF shredder machine

As experimented with our previous projects, metal separation is essential during shredding, because a big chunk of steel can damage an industrial shredder. Tires containers beads, so a TDF shredder that can completely break down tires into crumbs and beads is important. For SRF, a single shaft shredder is better because the final size is controllable, even smaller than 40mm.

Another point to bear is the dust collection of in-house shredding. Bad circulation of air can cause an explosion and air pollution.

In short, the treatment of refined waste involves Sorting – Primary shredding – Metal removal – Secondary shredding – Briquetting.