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Analysis of the potential use of major refuse-

derived fuels in Jordan as supplementary fuel

Mohammad A.T. Alsheyab , Daniel Schingnitz , Ali F. Al-Shawabkeh & Sigrid

Kusch

To cite this article: Mohammad A.T. Alsheyab , Daniel Schingnitz , Ali F. Al-Shawabkeh &
Sigrid Kusch (2013) Analysis of the potential use of major refuse-derived fuels in Jordan as
supplementary fuel, Journal of the Air & Waste Management Association, 63:8, 902-908, DOI:
10.1080/10962247.2013.776998

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TECHNICAL PAPER

Analysis of the potential use of major refuse-derived fuels in Jordan as

supplementary fuel
1,⁄ 2 3 2
Mohammad
1
A.T. Alsheyab, Daniel Schingnitz, Ali F. Al-Shawabkeh, and Sigrid Kusch
Civil and Environmental Engineering, Qatar National Research Fund, Qatar Foundation, Doha, Qatar
2
Institute of Waste Management and Contaminated Site Treatment, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany
3
Department of Applied Sciences, Faculty of Engineering Technology, Al-Balqa’ Applied University, Amman, Jordan
⁄Please address correspondence to: Mohammad A.T. Alsheyab, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Qatar National Research Fund, Qatar
Foundation, Doha, Qatar; e-mail: malsheyyab@gmail.com

The increasing energy demand in Jordan, compounded with the country’s limited natural resources as well as its dependence on
importing fuel oil from neighboring countries, makes it indispensible to search for alternative fuels. The objective of this study is to
analyze the potential use of refuse-derived fuel (RDF) as a supplementary fuel in Jordan, for this purpose. Nine of the major RDFs
generated in Jordan were chosen for this study: wastewater sludge, oil refinery sludge, olive oil husk, olive oil residue, chicken farm
waste, sheep farm waste, used cooking oil, used oil, and waste tires. The energy content was measured for each one and the results
were verified using five different empirical elemental analyses. Results of measuring and calculating the higher heating value (HHV)
of the samples showed that used oil had the highest potential as an alternative fuel at 45.36 MJ/kg and the residual olive waste had
the lowest heating content at 5.02 MJ/kg. Results also showed that there was a good agreement between the measured and calculated
values. The calculating models showed that there was a positive correlation between the HHV and C% and negative correlation
between HHVand ash%. Further research is planned to be conducted into the implementation of the concept of waste to energy in the
Jordanian industrial sector.

Implications: It has been necessary to measure the higher heating value (HHV) of different types of RDFs in Jordan to estimate
their potential use as supplementary fuels. The amounts generated per year in Jordan are a crucial factor to make it feasible to use
these. Used oil, used cooking oil, and waste tires could be the most promising supplementary fuels.

Introduction Jordan is one of these developing countries that strives to

Securing energy supply and the increasing energy bill are
some of the challenges that Jordan needs to address. Some of
the factors that aggravate the energy challenge in Jordan are (1)
the high population growth in Jordan, (2) dependency on
imported fuel oil, and (3) limited natural resources.
The use of waste for energy production has become an
attractive option to offset the consumption of conventional
energy sources, as well as to treat the increasing amounts of
waste generation (Munster and Meibom, 2011). On the one
hand, the population growth in Jordan increases the energy
demand, and on the other hand it increases the generation of
all types of waste, whether it is municipal solid waste (MSW) or
industrial waste. Many researchers have reported that waste
could be a potential source of energy and can alleviate the
high demand on fuel oil (Kaygusuz and Turker, 2002;
Munster and Meibom, 2011; Vargas-Moreno et al., 2012).
The perception of waste has been changing over the last dec-
ades. Nowadays, waste is being looked at as an energy source,
and this certainly has a higher impact on developing countries
that lack natural resources and are willing to improve the
quality of life of their people and to develop their countries.
902
Journal of the Air & Waste Management Association, 63(8):902–908, 2013. Copyright © 2013 A&WMA. ISSN: 1096-2247 print
DOI: 10.1080/10962247.2013.776998
provide a better quality of life to its people, in spite of lacking
of natural resources and being one of the poorest countries in
terms of water (Abu-Ashour et al., 2010).
Refuse-derived fuel (RDF) can be obtained from both the
MSW and industrial waste. There are two technologies that
produce RDF from the MSW: (1) mechanical biological treat-
ment, where the green waste fraction (food and garden waste),
inert (e.g., glass) fraction, and recyclable fraction (e.g., metals)
are separated, leaving a high-calorific fraction of RDF contain-
ing paper, cardboard, wood, plastic, and textiles; and (2) the dry
stabilization process, where residual waste (minus metals and
inert materials) is dried and stabilized through a composting
process, leaving a residual RDF from the waste of high calorific
value (European Commission, 2000). The percentage of RDF in
the MSW in Jordan is estimated to be around 44%, including
17% plastics, 13% paper/paperboard, and 14% other Fractions
(SWEEP-Net, 2010).
The other source of RDF is industrial waste. This includes,
among others, plastics, waste tires, biomass waste (i.e., dried
sewage sludge, dried oil sludge), waste textiles, waste oils,
animal wastes, and olive oil wastes (European Commission,
2000).
 Alsheyab et al. / Journal of the Air & Waste Management Association 63 (2013) 902–908
This research study targeted nine of the major RDF in Jordan;
their HHV is analyzed and their potential is evaluated to be used
as supplementary fuels. These are: (1) wastewater sludge col-
lected from wastewater plants in Jordan; (2) oil refinery sludge
formed as a by-product of Jordan Petroleum Refinery Company,
basically a mixture of crude oil, water, residues, and chemicals
used in the refinery process; (3) used oil, defined as any
petroleum-based or synthetic oil that, through contamination,
has become unsuitable for its original purpose due to the pre-
sence of impurities or loss of original properties; (4) chicken
farm waste, which is the solid manure formed at chicken farms in
Jordan; (5) sheep farm waste, taken as a solid manure from sheep
farms in Jordan; (6) used cooking oil, which is plant, animal, or
synthetic fat used in frying, baking, and other types of cooking
(examples of cooking oil are palm oil, sunflower oil, olive oil,
pumpkin seed oil, corn oil, sesame oil, and other vegetable oils);
(7) olive oil residue, which is the liquid waste generated as a by-
product of olive oil mills in Jordan; (8) olive husk, which is the
solid waste formed after extraction of olive oil from olives; and
(9) waste tires, defined as tires that are no longer mounted on a
vehicle and are no longer suitable for use as vehicle tires due to
wear, damage, or deviation from the manufacturer’s original
specifications.
The higher heating value (HHV) is the gross heat released
when a small sample of the material is burned in a test calori-
meter at a reference temperature, usually 25
C, and all products
are in their standard state at that temperature (Cooper et al.,
1999). The determination of HHV is crucial for (1) the design
of industrial processes for its energy extraction and (2) setting
the price that consumers need to pay for that energy (Ferrnandez-
Lorente and Carrasco-Garcia, 2008).
The objectives of this research are (1) measuring the HHV for
each waste using the calorific bomb, (2) conducting elemental
analysis for each waste, (3) verifying the measurements results
by using five empirical models for the calculating of HHV, (4)
calculating the absolute error for each model, and (5) analysis of
the results and drawing conclusions.
Materials and Methods
Materials Collection and Preparation
The solid samples of wastewater sludge, oil refinery sludge,
chicken farm waste, sheep farm waste, oil husk, and waste tires
were collected from different sources of generation in Jordan and
wastewater sludge dried at 105
C for 48 hr. The other three liquid
samples, used oil, used cooking oil, and olive oil residue, were
collected and stored in 500-mL containers. Samples were brought
from Jordan to Germany to the Institute of Waste Management
and Contaminated Site Treatment of the Technische Universität
Dresden, in order to conduct this research.
Measurements of HHV
The values of HHV and ash content were measured at the
laboratories of the Institute of Waste Management and
Contaminated Site Treatment, using a calorific bomb, using the
European Standards (EN 15400). The HHV was measured three
903
times for each sample of the nine studied samples and the
average value was taken.
The ash content of the samples was determined by burning
the samples using a muffle oven heated up to 550
C, following
the European Norm (EN 15403), which measures the remaining
weight after combustion.
The chlorine content was determined following the European
Norm (EN 154089), which is based on burning the sample in a
calorific bomb and absorbing the generated gases by a chemical
liquid, which is then sent to ion chromatography to measure the
Cl value.
Models of Comparison
Three types of models have been used for the prediction of
heating value for MSW, biomass, and RDF (Liu, 1996; Parikh
et al., 2005; Telmo and Lousada, 2011):
(1) Elemental analysis, which involves the percentages of C, H,
N, S, and O in a dry weight (Selvig and Gibson, 1945). It has
received historically high attention from researchers, prob-
ably due to its accuracy when used with coal (Vargas-
Moreno et al., 2012).
(2) Proximate analysis, which includes an assessment of the
levels of moisture, volatile material, fixed carbon, and ash.
(3) Physical analysis, which consists of separating waste mixture
into different components such as paper, plastic, and garbage.
To validate the results obtained by using the calorific bomb, it
has been decided to use empirical models based on elemental
and proximate analysis as this covers wide range of use including
solids, liquids, and gases (Channiwala and Parikh, 2002; Yin,
2011). For this purpose an elemental analysis and a proximate
analysis were conducted at the laboratories of the Institute of
Power Engineering of Technische Universität Dresden, where C,
H, S, and N were measured and the O was defined as the missing
mass such that the sum of all components totaled 100% in the
testing protocols (100 ¼ Ash + C + H + O + N + S + Cl).
The elemental analyzer was used to measure C, H, and N
components in each waste where the samples are burned at
900
C and the resulting flue gases are measured. The S content
was measured by a near-infrared detection system (NIR-
detection system) after increasing the temperature of the result-
ing flue gas to 1400
C.
Ash content and chlorine were measured at the laboratories of
the Institute of Waste Management and Contaminated Site
Treatment of the Technische Universität Dresden.
Table 1 summarizes the measured elements, with each on’es
main product, impact, and the method of determination used.
Five models were used to verify the measured values obtained
by using the calorific bomb, these are listed in Table 2. The
method of Cooper et al., which was based originally on Dulong
method developed to measure the HHV for coal, was used to
evaluate the HHV of MSW (Cooper et al., 1999).
The Institute of Gas Technology (IGT) method was cho-
sen for this research, as it combines the elemental analysis
with ash content (Fassinou et al., 2011). It has been reported
that this method was efficient in measuring the HHV
904 Alsheyab et al. / Journal of the Air & Waste Management Association 63 (2013) 902–908

Table 1. Elemental analysis, main products, impacts, and methods of determination

Combustion
Element product Impact Methods of determination
Carbon (C) CO2 The higher the C content, the higher the HHV ASTM E777, EN 15407
Hydrogen H 2O The higher the HþC/O, the higher the HHV ASTM E777, EN 15407
(H)
Nitrogen NOx Air contaminant: the higher the N, the higher the formation ASTM E778-8, EN 15407
(N) of NOx
Sulphur (S) SOx Air contaminentthe higher the S, the higher the formation ASM D4239–1 1, EN 15408
of SOx
Chlorine HC1 Corrosive: the higher the Cl, the higher the formation of ASM D776-87, EN 15408
(Cl) HCl
Ash Ash Non-combustible part; not preferable for combustion ASM E830-87, EN 15403
Oxygen CO2, H2O, The higher the HþC/O, the higher the HHV, SOx and NOx Calculated as missing mass to
NOx, SOx, total 100

Table 2. Used models of calculation the higher heating value (HHV)

Author Calculating model Ref.

Cooper et al. HHV ¼ 105(33,827 C þ 144,267 H - 18,033 O þ 9,420 S) [7]
IGT HHV ¼ 0.341 C þ 1.3221 Hþ 0.1232 S - 0.1198 (Oþ N) - 0.0153 Ash [16]
Channiwala &Parikh HHV ¼ 0.3491 C þ 1.1783 Hþ 0.1005 S - 0.1034 O - 0.0151 N- 0.0211 Ash [13]
Boie & Vondracek HHV ¼ 2.326*105( 15,122 C þ 50,000 H þ 4,500 Sþ 2,700 N -7,771 O) [17]
Vondracek HHV ¼ 4.1868* 103(85 C þ 27 H þ 25 S - 27 O) [18]

Table 3. Results of elemental analysis of the studied samples

Samples Ash% C% H% O% N% S% Cl%

Wastewater sludge 19.21 43.39 06.41 22.56 07.41 01.01 00.76
Waste tires 06.18 80.78 07.26 03.74 00.53 01.51 00.25
Olive oil husk 00.87 51.04 06.84 40.30 00.88 00.07 00.15
Oil refinery sludge 28.80 26.26 04.31 12.79 03.99 23.85 01.37
Sheep farm waste 18.14 41.63 05.62 31.55 02.63 00.43 00.50
Chicken farm waste 17.11 38.87 05.64 35.26 02.90 00.22 00.33
Olive oil residue (liquid) 02.26 02.37 10.64 84.68 00.03 00.02 00.20
Used oil (liquid) 00.94 84.40 12.72 01.05 00.08 00.81 00.32
Used cooking oil (liquid) 00.00 76.60 11.60 11.76 00.01 00.03 00.14

(Vargas-Moreno et al., 2012). The other three methods,
Channiwala, Boie, and Vondracek, were chosen as they
were developed to measure the HHV of biofuels that are
already included in the RDF (Fassinou et al., 2011; Vargas-
Moreno et al., 2012).
To produce homogeneous units, the factor of 4.1868 103
was used to change the unit from kcal/kg to MJ/kg in the
equation of Vondracek and another factor of 2.326 105 was
added to the equation of Boie and Vondracek to change the unit
from Btu/lb to MJ/kg.
Results and Discussion
The results of the elemental analysis, conducted at the labora-
tories of the Institute of Power Engineering of the Technische
Universität Dresden, are shown in Table 3.
It has been reported that although chlorine can be used as a
limiting factor for quality assurance of substitute fuels, its lim-
ited concentrations and the tradition, used by plant operators, to
consider it as not influential when it is <1% are reasons to
exclude it from calculation (Rotter et al., 2004). This is why in
 Alsheyab et al. / Journal of the Air & Waste Management Association 63 (2013) 902–908 905

Table 3 Cl% was not used in our calculations of determining the calculate the HHV and on the other hand to measure the agree-
O% due to its very low values (less than 1%), except for oil ment between the measured and calculated values. The next two
refinery sludge where it is 1.37%. formulas were used to calculate the AE and AAE, respectively
The values of C%, the most influential element in the HHV, (Fassinou et al., 2011):
varied from low values of less than 3% for the olive oil residue in


a liquid phase to more than 80% for waste tires and used oil. The
HHVcalculated HHVmeasured

AE ¼


 100% (1)
ash content varied from 0% for used cooking oil to more than HHVcalculated

28% for oil refinery sludge. The high percentage of ash content
n



was reported to be an unfavorable factor for the combustion, and
it affects negatively the HHV. The hydrogen values varied from 1 X
ðHHVcalculated HHVmeasured Þ


AAE ¼ 
 100% (2)
4.31% for oil refinery sludge to less than 12.72% for used oil. n n¼1
HHVcalculated
Nitrogen percentages were relatively low, except 7.41% for was-
tewater sludge and 3.99% for oil refinery sludge. Sulfur percen- The agreement with the calculated values using the five
tages were very low except for oil refinery sludge, where sulfur suggested models was analysed, and the average absolute
reached 23.8%. The chlorine values all were low and less than 1% errors were 15.69% for Cooper et al., 7.42% for IGT,
except for oil refinery sludge, where chlorine was 1.37%. 7.40% for Channiwala and Parikh, 11.78% for Boie and
The HHV was measured three times for each waste sample Vondracek, and 11.94% for Vondracek, as seen in Table 6.
and the average was taken as the measured value. Then, as The results showed that there is a correlation between C%
mentioned previously, five empirical models were used to verify and agreement of the measured and calculated values of HHV
the measured values by calculate the HHV. The results of mea- using different empirical models; it seems that when C% is
sured and calculated values are summarized in Table 4 and the lower, the disagreement between the measured value and the
uncertainty of the measured values as well as the level of con- calculated one becomes higher, which means that the error
fidence are shown in Table 5. The wastes of highest HHV were decreases with the increase of C%. However, this relation is
used oil (lubrication oil) (45.36 MJ/kg), used cooking oil (40.45 not linear, and this could be explained by the fact that we
MJ/kg), and waste tires (36.83 MJ/kg). This may be attributed to
the highest carbon content in these wastes, with values of 84.4,
76.6, and 80.78%, respectively. It is important to realize that
although the carbon content of waste tires is higher than the Table 5. Uncertainty of measurements and level of confidence for the studied
wastes
carbon content of used cooking oil, the HHV is lower, and this
can be attributed to the higher ash content in waste tires, which Level of
was measured as 6.18%, while it was around 0% in used cooking Samples HHV(kj/kg) confidence %
oil. The total consumption of lubricating oil in Jordan is about
50,000 tons per year (Falah and Hussien, 2011). According to Wastewater sludge 17970  95 99.47
the Department of Statistics in Jordan, the amount of waste tires Waste tires 36830  300 99.19
produced in Jordan in 2008 was about 2.5 million tires and Olive oil husk 21430  111 99.48
expected to reach 4 millions in 2013. Oil refinery sludge 12120  102 99.16
The waste with lowest HHV was the olive oil residue (5.36 Sheep farm waste 15980  66 99.59
MJ/kg), with carbon content was only 2.37%. Chicken farm waste 13810  10 99.93
The comparison of the HHV of the studied samples, arranged Olive oil residue (liquid) 5020  202 95.98
from lower to higher is shown in Figure 1. Used oil (liquid) 45360  566 98.75
The absolute error (AE) and the average absolute error (AAE) Used cooking oil (liquid) 40450  1354 96.65
were used on one hand to compare different methods existing to

Table 4. Measured and calculated values of the HHVs of the studied samples

Measured Calculated HHV (Mj/Kg)

Samples HHV (MJ/kg) Cooper et al. IGT Channiwala & Parikh Boie & Vondracek Vondracek
Wastewater Sludge 17.97 19.96 19.55 19.96 20.79 20.25
Waste tires 36.83 37.26 36.77 36.38 36.63 36.69
Olive oil husk 21.43 19.87 21.55 21.69 21.50 21.35
Oil refinery sludge 12.12 15.05 15.18 14.66 15.58 15.28
Sheep farm waste 15.98 16.55 17.34 17.52 17.89 17.65
Chicken farm waste 13.81 14.95 15.94 16.19 16.53 16.25
Olive oil residue (liquid) 05.02 00.85 04.70 04.56 03.82 03.30
Used oil (liquid) 45.36 46.79 45.61 44.40 44.45 44.38
Used cooking oil (liquid) 40.45 40.53 40.10 39.20 39.13 39.05
906 Alsheyab et al. / Journal of the Air & Waste Management Association 63 (2013) 902–908

Figure 1. Measured higher heating value (HHV) of the studied wastes arranged from lower to higher.

Table 6. Absolute and average absolute errors calculations for different models of calculations

Absolute Error (AE%)

Samples Cooper et al. IGT Channiwala & Parikh Boie & Vondracek Vondracek
Wastewater sludge 11.05 8.76 11.05 15.68 12.67
Waste tires 1.17 0.14 1.23 0.54 0.39
Olive oil husk 7.25 0.56 1.22 0.34 0.36
Oil refinery sludge 24.13 25.56 20.91 28.53 25.99
Sheep farm waste 3.55 8.52 9.63 11.97 10.46
Chicken farm waste 8.26 15.40 17.23 19.67 17.66
Olive oil residue (liquid) 82.42 6.50 0.17 24.06 34.29
Used oil (liquid) 3.15 0.54 2.11 2.00 2.16
Used cooking oil (liquid) 0.19 0.86 3.10 3.26 3.47
Average AE (AAE) 15.69 7.42 7.40 11.78 11.94

have different other element percentages that influence the
behavior of the combustion process.
It has been realized that although the AE of some wastes is
quite high, the AAE was reduced considerably due to the very
low values of other wastes, as seen in Table 5.
The correlation between C% and the absolute error of the
used models for calculation was analyzed and the general
trend of results showed that there was a negative correlation,
which means that the values of the absolute error are getting
lower when the C% is higher. Figure 2 illustrates the corre-
lation of each used model of calculation and the AE;
although the correlation varies from one model to another,
at certain values of C% > 30, all models are correlated
negatively with C% in a semiregular trend.
The correlation of ash% with the AE of calculations using the
five different models was also analyzed. It has been realized that
the general trend was of positive correlation; when the ash%
increases, the AE also increases. This was illustrated in Figure 3.
However, there was an exception or different trend for the olive
oil residue, whose C% was 2.37 and ash% 2.26. It is important to
mention that this C% of 2.37 was by far lower than any other C%
of the rest of the studied samples, and this might suggest that the
models are not suitable for very low values of C%.
The figures showed that there is a correlation between C%
and ash%, while the correlation is negative for C%, it was
positive for the ash%.
Conclusion
 The potential use of RDF as a supplementary fuel in a non-
petroleum-producer country like Jordan is high and could be
significant. The major RDF analyzed in this study had differ-
ent HHV; while waste tires, used oil, and used cooking oil had
values between 35 and 45 MJ/kg, olive husk and wastewater
sludge had an intermediate values of 21.4 and 17.98 MJ/kg,
 Alsheyab et al. / Journal of the Air & Waste Management Association 63 (2013) 902–908
Figure 2. Correlation between C% and absolute error (AE).
Figure 3. Correlation between ash% and absolute error (AE).
respectively. However, the rest of studied wastes had values in
the range of 5–15 MJ/kg.
 However, many factors should be taken into consideration to
make a decision for using these wastes as supplementary
fuels: (1) total amounts generated per year, (2) the moisture
content, (3) waste state: gas, liquid, or solid, (4) collection
system and transportation, and (5) final user industry.
907
 Results showed that the elemental analysis is important to
predict and validate the energy potential as well as to assess
the environmental impacts.
 The analysis of correlations of AE resulting from applying the
five models of calculation with both C% and ash% showed
that there was a negative correlation with C% and positive
with ash%.
908 Alsheyab et al. / Journal of the Air & Waste Management Association 63 (2013) 902–908
 Error analysis showed that models for calculating the HHVare
not suitable for wastes with very low C% like the olive oil
residue, whose C% was 2.37.
 To be able to estimate the offset of fuel oil consumption in
Jordan by using these RDF as supplementary fuels, it is
necessary to conduct national surveys and statistics on the
studied wastes, so that the exact potential of each studied
waste can be estimated.
 Further research is planned on the real implementation of the
concept of waste to energy in the Jordanian industrial sector,
especially the cement industry.
Acknowledgment
The authors are grateful to Deutsche Forschungsgemeins-
chaft (DFG), Germany, for funding the research visit of
Dr. Mohammad Alsheyab to the Technische Universität
Dresden (DFG reference number KU 3067/1-1). The authors
also thank the staff of the Technische Universität Dresden and
Al-Balqa’ Applied University for supporting this project.
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About the Authors
Mohammad A. T. Alsheyab is a program manager of Civil and Environmental
Engineering at Qatar National Research Fund.
Daniel Schingnitz is project manager and head of the working group “Thermal
Waste Treatment” at the Technische Universität Dresden.
Ali F. Al-Shawabkeh is an industrial chemist and assistant professor at Al-Balqa’
Applied University, Faculty of Engineering Technology, Department of Applied
Sciences, Jordan.
Sigrid Kusch is an environmental engineer who has held academic positions in
research and teaching, among others, at Technische Universität Dresden.