Sustainable business assessment of the gasification of solid recovered fuel for bread making

Abstract

Solid recovered fuel (SRF) is an alternative to fossil fuels that is produced from recovered municipal solid waste. SRF is often used to provide heat for energy-intensive industries, such as cement production. Here, the alternative use of SRF for industrial bread production is proposed for the first time. Five industrial bread-making portfolios based on SRF gasification were developed based on commercially available industrial machinery and technology. The developed industrial-scale alternatives were subjected to the cost and profit feasibility analyses to quantify their economic sustainability. The technical feasibility of SRF-fueled bread making was mathematically modelled considering the maturity of the industrial machinery. Regression plots were used to analyze the effects of the productivity (manufacturing scale) on the cost, power, syngas consumption, number of workers, and delivery cost of these relationships. Good consistency between the data in these plots, i.e., the machinery specifications, indicates a high level of technical maturity. Furthermore, the social sustainability was calculated based on the technical, employment, and human development potentials, where automated bread-making lines increase productivity, but reduce the required number of workers. Finally, a comprehensive sustainability performance index was evaluated by combining the technical, economic, environmental, and social indexes. The final sustainability index of 0.65 is very close to the threshold for a sustainable profitable business. The economic analysis showed that a maximum profit of 36,718 USD/day can be achieved based on the production of 1.5 t/h of bread, where cost can be lowered to 1630 USD/t by using SRF. Replacing traditional fossil-based gas fuels (liquid petroleum gas and liquid natural gas) by SRF-derived gas has both economic and environmental advantages, resulting in high economic and environmental sustainability indexes.