Waste tires are ideally suited for energy recovery through combustion because they exhibit high heat contents and low levels of moisture and nitrogen compared to coal. Utilization of tires as supplemental or alternate fuel in combustion facilities, thus, has become the most important alternative to disposal. Substantial reductions of some environmental pollutants (e.g., NOx) can be achieved by partially replacing conventional fuels with tires, but the levels of other pollutants, most notably Zn, may be enhanced considerably. This study reports experimental data from a tire-coal co-combustion experiment in a power-generating plant. Chemical and mineralogical data are presented for the fuels (coal, shredded tires, coal+tire mixture), the solid combustion products (bottom ash, fly ash), and the gaseous and particulate emissions. It will be shown that using tire fuel has environmental impacts that must be weighed against the benefits of reducing the large volume of scrap tires in the global waste stream.

Characterization of fuel, ash and particulate matter from co-combustion of tires and coal

243rd National Meeting (2012)

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