After sorting the municipal solid waste, the determination of the
moisture content of the waste was made at 75 C in a drying oven
for 24e 48h until a constant weight (TSE, 1992). The calorific value
of the dried samples was determined with a bomb calori meter
according to ASTM D 5468-02. 0.9 e1 g of each ground waste
sample in an LECO AC-500 calori meter was burned and the temperature
change was determined to measure enthalpies of combustion.
The heavy metals were also monitored using an ICP-OES
(PerkineElmer). Prior to analysis, 0.2 g of each sample was digested in a microwave oven with concentrated 6 ml of HCl and 2 ml of
HNO3 and diluted to 50 ml with water.