Abstract
A large capacity calorimeter was designed and constructed in order to determine the enthalpies of combustion of kilogram-size samples of municipal solid waste (MSW) in flowing oxygen near atmospheric pressure. The combustion of the organic fraction of the samples was complete to greater than 99.9+%. The percent coefficient of variation (100 × standard deviation/average), % CV, of calibration measurements using microcrystalline cellulose was 0.2%. The % CV of the measurements of the enthalpy of combustion of a processed MSW sample was 0.4%. The combined systematic errors due to departure from usual design standards and conventional operating procedures is estimated to be less than 0.4% of the calorific value.