Fires due to Selfignition in (MSWS) Municipal Solid Waste Storages

Abstract

Growing energy demands and global emphasis on employing sustainable energy resources to meet energy requirements result in increased importance of MSW (municipal solid waste) as a valuable carbondioxide neutral fuel. There is a need to study the factors that may lead to selfignition of MSW, if stored for sufficiently longer period of time. A better understanding of these factors may help in establishing the practicle guidelines for efficient handling of MSW and to reduce the environmental and social costs caused by selfigniting fires. Its importance is evident from the fact that millions of euros are lost every year in Sweden because of spontaneous fires. These fires cause loss of valuable material and injuries to people, and they are also associated with intense environmental pollution, in particular in the form of smoke and water pollution. This study is based on a questionnaire survey among the members of the Swedish waste management association (Avfall Sverige), whose members service 95% of the Swedish population. The response to the survey was 60%. A total of 96 major surface fires have been reported in the past 10 years at storage sites. 74% of these 96 fire incidents were due to self-ignition, 11% were due to known causes other than self-ignition and 15% were due to unknown reasons. In reference to the type of storage, 50% of these 96 fire incidents took place at sites that store both household and industrial waste, 20% at sites that store only industrial waste, and 30% at sites that store household, industrial, and agricultural waste. Regarding the most frequent cause of fire at any storage site, 33% of respondents relate the fire incidents with extreme hot weather conditions, 8% of respondents report that fire incidents at their storage site are mostly an aftereffect of rainfall, 13% relate the fire incidents with cold weather in December, and 46% of respondents experienced the fire incidents throughout the whole year. Based on data covering the last 10 years, the average annual amount of emissions of dioxins is (upper/lower bound) TCDD 0.03/0.12 g, PAH 0.98/3.7 tons, PCB 1.66/6.31 g, Hg 16.51/62.59 g, and VOC 18/68 tons from MSW storage fires in Sweden.