Solid Recovered Fuels
Solid Recovered Fuels (SRF, also named "Refuse Derived Fuels" - RDF) are solid fuels prepared from non-hazardous waste to be utilised for energy recovery in incineration or co-incineration plants. “Prepared” here means processed, homogenised and up-graded to a quality that can be traded amongst producers and users. They can be derived from household waste, commercial waste, industrial waste and other combustible waste streams. They are already used to substitute fossil fuels in cement kilns, power stations and industrial boilers.
In 2002 the European Commission gave a mandate to CEN on Solid Recovered Fuels to develop a set of Technical Specifications concerning the use of SRF for energy recovery in waste incineration or co-incineration plants. The scope of the Technical Committee CEN/TC 343 on "Solid Recovered Fuels" is the elaboration of standards, technical specifications and technical reports on these fuels, excluding those that are already included in the scope of CEN/TC 335 on "Solid Biofuels”. CEN/TC 343 works on terminology, fuel specifications and classes, quality management systems, sampling, chemical and mechanical tests.
ECOS has prepared in 2005 a comprehensive policy paper for NGO-representatives and other stakeholders concerned, detailing its criticism regarding the draft standards prepared by the TC. You can access it by clicking here.
ECOS has been sending an expert to this committee and its working groups since 2003. In the past years the expert has been opposing the adoption of these technical specificiations on SRF due to many environmental concerns.
Extract from the European Commission mandate to CEN: SRFs may be composed of a variety of materials of which some although recyclable may have been made available in such a form that recycling is not environmentally sound. On the one hand materials collected and/or sorted and prepared into a recyclable form should not be considered as SRFs. On the other hand recyclable materials should not be excluded from SRFs because such an exclusion could lead to disposal of these materials and wastage of the resources embedded in them. There is a need for a method for the determination of the fraction of SRF that falls under the scope of Directive 2001/77/EC (Directive 2001/77/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 September 2001 on the promotion of electricity produced from renewable energy sources in the internal electricity market). Such a method could usefully be included in a European Standard.
Links and attachements
Mandate of the European Commission on SRF