• Journal of Korea Society of Waste Management
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• v.35 no.7
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• pp.616-626
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• 2018

The quality standards of solid refuse fuel (SRF) define the values for 12 physico-chemical properties, including moisture, lower heating value, and metal compounds, according to Article 20 of the Enforcement Rules of the Act on Resource Saving and Recycling Promotion. These parameters are evaluated via various SRF Quality Test Methods, but problems related to the heavy metal content have been observed in the microwave acid digestion method. Therefore, these methods and their applicability need improvement. In this study, the appropriate testing conditions were derived by varying the parameters of microwave acid digestion, such as microwave power and pre-treatment time. The pre-treatment of SRF as a function of the microwave power revealed an incomplete decomposition of the sample at 600 W, and the heavy metal content analysis was difficult to perform under 9 mL of nitric acid and 3 mL of hydrochloric acid. The experiments with the reference materials under nitric acid at 600 W lasted 30 minutes, and 1,000 W for 20 or 30 minutes were considered optimal conditions. The results confirmed that a mixture of SRF and an acid would take about 20 minutes to reach $180^{\circ}C$, requiring at least 30 minutes of pre-treatment. The accuracy was within 30% of the standard deviation, with a precision of 70 ~ 130% of the heavy metal recovery rate. By applying these conditions to SRF, the results for each condition were not significantly different and the heavy metal standards for As, Pb, Cd, and Cr were satisfied.