Perspectives of refuse-derived fuel in Romania after entrance into the EU

On 1 January 2007, Romania entered the European Union. For that reason Romania must comply with all the EU directives in the field of the management of the environment. In 2007, in Romania, Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) was generally landfilled without pre-treatment and energy valorization absent. Some initiatives are in progress but landfilling is still dominant. The entrance in the EU gave an important push to the industrial sectors, increasing the demand of fuels. In this frame an important option regards the use of Solid Recovered Fuel (SRF) as industrial fuel substitute. In Romania, SRF could be generated from MSW using the bio-drying process with post-separation of inert fractions as the percentage of organic fraction in the residual MSW is significant. Today in Romania bio-drying plants for residual municipal waste (RMSW) are under discussion but not yet implemented. The present paper deals with the potential use of SRF in Romania. Some aspects of local and global environmental impact related to a partial substitution of conventional fuels with SRF for industrial uses are discussed too. Some considerations are also based on the assessment of the Romanian SRF characteristics that could be potentially generated. The scenarios that are discussed concern the use of SRF obtainable taking into account also the development of the Romanian MSW composition and the effects of the selective collection evolution.