Performance Improvement of Waste to Energy Plant by Stepped Cyclic Operation of RAM Feeder

Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) can be harnessed as a source of energy, depending on its handling. MSW can be directly fed to incinerator as fuel in Waste to Energy (WTE) plant or in the form of Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF). Loading of waste from Hopper to Furnace in WTE is carried out by RAM feeders. Unlike fossil fuels, the calorific value of MSW is not constant, which presents challenge for improving waste combustion. This paper presents the work carried out at largest WTE plant situated at Delhi, India, wherein its performance was improved by devising a method of stepped cyclic operation of RAM feeders with reduced travel length to achieve higher combustion efficiency. Further the improved RAM feeder operation with reduced travel distance successfully resolved the maintenance issue related to RAM tables getting stuck during the MSW feeding operation. An overall increase of steam flow by 4.12% was attained by the newly devised Stepped Cyclic Operation of RAM feeder.