EN 15411:2011

This European Standard specifies three methods of digestion for solid recovered fuels:a) microwave assisted digestion with hydrofluoric, nitric and hydrochloric acid mixture;b) hot water bath digestion of with hydrofluoric, nitric and hydrochloric acid mixture, after ashing of the SRFssample;c) oven digestion with nitric, perchloric and hydrofluoric acid mixture.Instrumental determination of As, Ba, Be, Cd, Cr, Co, Cu, Pb, Mn, Mo, Ni, Sb, Se, Tl, V, Zn is performed byInductively Coupled Plasma with optical or mass detection or graphite furnace Atomic AbsorptionSpectrometry. Hg can be analysed only after the microwave assisted procedure or, alternatively, by a directanalysis method (Hg direct AMA).The effectiveness of the digestion can be verified by qualitative X-ray fluorescence (XRF) analysis on theremaining residue. If necessary, an alternative digestion method (among those proposed) is used.Method a) is recommended for general use, but the amount of the test portion can be very low in case of highconcentration of organic matter.Method b) is recommended for Solid Recovered Fuel (SRF) with high organic matter concentration that canbe difficult to digest with the other methods. This method is not suitable for mercury.Method c) is recommended for Solid Recovered Fuel (SRF) samples for which the other methods leave asignificant insoluble residue.Alternative digestion methods can be applied if their performance is proved to be comparable with those of themethods mentioned in a) to c) (see Annex C).