Specialty types of waste paper as an energetic commodity

Abstract

The collection and recycling rate of paper and paper packaging material has been on a rise. From 2010 to 2016 in Czech Republic, the recycled amount of all paper went up by 32%, while the share of energy use in waste paper utilization decreased f rom 5.5% to 3.8%. However, not every paper and cardboard product can be recycled, and some are rejected from the recycling stream. Recycling specialty types of paper with other grades of recyclable paper is often not possible and their production is not hi gh enough for their separate recycling to be feasible. If material utilization is not feasible then within the waste hierarchy the next best treatment is their energy utilization. Therefore, this article evaluates selected types of specialty paper for thei r energy content. They were silicone coated papers, polymer coated papers, and paper cores. For all samples proximate, elemental and calorimetric analyses were determined and based on them stoichiometric combustion calculations were performed. Silicon coat ed papers fared generally well having small to reasonable ash content 1 – 10% and net calorific value from 15.10 to 17.10 MJ kg - 1 on dry basis. Polymer coated papers had ash content around 6% and net calorific value from value from 16.29 to 22.98 MJ kg - 1 on dry basis. With the exception of paper cores and self - copying paper, all evaluated paper types could be recommended as a component in refuse derived fuels. The least suitable samples were paper cores with nearly 20% wt. of ash and net calorific value 12.45 MJ kg - 1 on dry basis.