The members of the European Union have signed the Kyoto protocol to agree the intention of reduction of the emission of CO2. Using coal, oil and natural gas generates an important part of the power generation. This primary energy fuel effects the emission of greenhouse gasses tremendously. To replace these fuels partly by biomass fuel (short cyclic carbon) the energy companies contribute to the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions. Biomass can be produced as “clean biomass” directly from agriculture or forestry but also recovered from (mixed) waste that partly consists of biomass. Municipal solid waste (MSW) is a mixture of paper, plastics, kitchen waste, metals, ceramic etc. By recovery of the biogenic organic fraction from the (mixed) MSW and using this fraction as biofuel a contribution of the green house gas reduction can be managed. Biomass produced from mixed waste get the certificate “clean biomass” if the plastic fraction is limited by 3% of the dry mass. The power generated by clean biomass is subsidised by the European governments. Parallels to this definition question there are more criteria for the use of biomass as substitute fuel like the heat value, chemical and physical properties. More specified the chemical impurity effect the flue gas quality and the ash quality. The flue gas quality has to meet standards and the ashes have to be reused as construction material. The salt content in the biomass effects the corrosion of the kilns and is therefor limited, too. The energy conversion efficiency of a coal-fired power plant is almost double of a waste incineration plant with energy recovery (44 instead of 22% from fuel to power). The research of the biomass production from MSW has to provide the data to evaluate the environmental, technical and economical feasibility. The Essent holding include coal fired power plants as well as waste handling companies like composting and incineration plants. Essnt Milieu (waste management) in Wijster (NL) has a mechanical separation plant for MSW. In this plant, with a capacity of approx. 800.000 ton/a, the waste is separated in high calorific fraction with paper and plastics (secondary fuel for cement kilns), a RDF (refuse derived fuel) to be incinerated by Essent Milieu, metals and a low calorific and wet fraction as a residual fraction. This residual fraction (size less than 50 mm) consists of wet paper, leafs, glass, stones, sand and a minor fraction of plastics. Formerly this fraction was landfilled. Producing a Biofuel from this residual fraction was the target of this research programm. The residual fraction is rather wet, so the first step is drying. Essent Milieu is used with the composting process and had some over capacity. By composting air is blowed through a pile of the residual fraction. The aerobic conversion produces heat to dry the waste. The indoor composting of approx. two weeks…

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