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SUMMARY
Waste management is a fast growing environmental business in the world today. One of the many solutions of dealing with the huge
amount of waste is to create energy from it. Energy is recovered from the waste either in the form of electricity and/or heat, biogas
and other transportation fuels after the primary treatment of waste. There are different methods to produce energy in a waste to
energy plant (WtE) but it is dominated by combustion processes. The feedstock for WtE plants is mostly comprised of municipal solid
waste (MSW) collected from the residential and commercial sector. The annual global waste generation accounts for 7-10 billion
tonnes in total, out of which approximately 2 billion tonnes are categorized as MSW. Hence, there is a dire need to take care of this
increasing problem. Advantages of using an energy recovery from waste system are:
• It reduces the volume of waste upto 96%.
• Production of heat and electricity along with solid waste management.
• Better sanitation, lower risk of contamination and diseases.
• WtE facilities are designed for high emission control
• It has climate change impact as producing energy from waste avoids potential emissions from landfilling
ENERGY RECOVERY
FROM WASTE
WBA fact sheet
INTRODUCTION
The World Bank denes Municipal Solid
Waste (MSW) as non-hazardous waste
generated in households, commercial and
business establishments, institutions, and
non-hazardous industrial process wastes,
agricultural wastes and sewage sludge. In
practice, specic denitions vary across
jurisdictions.
e world is facing a major global issue
of municipal solid waste management.
With the ever-growing amount of MSW
generation globally, there comes a need
to use MSW as a resource in a sustainable
manner. e very need of a sound MSW
management strategy in every country
arises from the two biggest concerns un-
disposed waste brings along with it: health
and environment.
Public Health
Solid waste has direct impact on the health
of the community. If the solid waste is
burned out in the open, it produces un-
controlled emissions of pollutants in the
air and ruins the land, making it barren for
a long time. More importantly, the emis-
sions lead to various respiratory issues.
If it is left out in the open, it becomes a
breeding ground for various diseases,
like cholera, dengue, malaria, etc. If it is
dumped in an unsustainable manner, it
can cause problems for the settlements
near the dumpsites as well as for the rag
pickers. Moreover, unsustainable dumping
can pollute waterways or block waste wa-
ter streams leading to spread of diseases.
Open dumping site.
July 2017
Photo: Pixabay
Environmental Wellbeing
Open dumpsites are a major problem.
ey cause public health issues as well as
environmental ones. e production of
methane in such dumpsites makes it a
source of greenhouse gas (GHG). If the
dumpsite is near a water body, it makes
the water body prone to pollution too.
Exposure to open dumpsite has a greater
ompact on population's life expectancy
than malaria. In 2000, city of Payatas
(Philippines) suered from municipal
dumpsite collapse on the slum in its
vicinity after 10 days of rains. e landslide
killed around 300 families and left many
homeless. It happened because of high
leachate levels, landll gas pressures and
unstable slopes of waste.
ough, a Waste Management strategy
is a costly aair in low income and middle
income countries, it stands as the largest
employer too. A city which fails to provide
this basic service to its citizens usually face
many problems regarding health. In mid-
dle and low income countries, the costs
due to the problems created are 5-10 times
more than what it would require for solid
waste management per capita. (UNEP,
ISWA, 2015)
Waste generation globally
In 2012, the global MSW generation rates
from cities were approximated at 1.3 billion
tons MSW per year at a rate of 1.2 kg per
person per day. ey also estimated that
this number would increase to 2.2 billion
2
tons of MSW per year by 2025. (Hoornweg
D, 2012) is creates a need for a better
waste management in the days to come.
Even though, in the past decade, there was
an increase in waste, waste management
sector has changed a lot too. From being
a sector which deals with primary treat-
ment and management of waste streams
to a sector which provides energy for the
community.
e generation rates are highly depend-
ent on the income level of the country.
Other major inuencing factors in MSW
generation are rate of industrialization,
urbanization, public habits and local cli-
mate. (UNEP, ISWA, 2015) ere is a clear
relation between the income level and
MSW generation of a country as seen in
the Figure 1.
Waste Heirarchy
According to the EU directive 2008/98/EC
for waste management, the EU member
state shall follow a waste hierarchy, where
in, the state should strive to avoid creating
waste at all. If waste is created, it should go
through these stages, re-use, recycling, re-
covery and disposal as shown in the Figure
2. (European Union, 2008) It is also noted
that, countries with high proportion of
material recycling also resulted in high en-
ergy recovery. Hence, separation of waste
at the source level, ultimately aects the
energy recovery process too. ough, ma-
terial recovery is better than energy recov-
ery, the latter has found its niche when it
comes to materials that are not recyclable,
such as soiled or contaminated materials,
composite materials and materials which
have no value and are deteriorated after
several recycling processes.
Figure 1: Waste generation versus the income level of the countr y. Source: (UNEP, ISWA, 2015)
Waste Composition
e composition of the waste varies from
country to country. MSW consists of or-
ganic materials, paper, plastics, glass, met-
als, textiles and other waste. e composi-
tion of MSW varies depending on the in-
come level as discussed above. e low and
middle income level countries have a high-
er organic material composition whereas
the higher income countries have a lower
percentage of organic material in their
MSW. e reason for a higher organic con-
tent is that the other fractions have more
values in low income countries and there-
fore enter informal re-use cycles without
ending up in the MSW stream. e organic
matter can be upto 88% and the paper con-
tent could be upto 46% as can be seen from
Figure 3. (Hoornweg, 2012)
Waste recovery
e waste composition aects, treatment
as well as collection of the waste. If the
waste is wetter and denser, it has a low
caloric value and hence the energy recov-
ery process becomes more dicult. Also,
the cost of waste transportation increases.
e caloric value of MSW also changes
around the world ranging from 4-12 MJ/
kg. (ISWA, 2013)
Waste is managed based on its proper-
ties and hence the energy recovery meth-
ods vary accordingly. Dierent methods
like material recovery, biological treat-
ment and energy recovery must be used in
the right mix to make the best use out of
the waste. (Avfall Sverige, 2008)
Contrary to the conventional
combustion technologies, energy recovery
technologies’ economic performance is
positively aected by the input waste fuel
prices. Waste has a negative price and is
regulated often, forming the basis of major
source of income for the WtE plant owners.
Apart from this, generation of electricity
and heat is another source of income. e
major costs associated with these plants
are the investment and maintenance
Figure 2: Waste Hierarchy
by EU Commission.
3
costs. In general, the cost for WtE plant,
depending on location, size and other
factors is estimated at about $650 - $1000
per annual ton capacity (WTERT, Waste to
Energy International 2015) . In low income
countries this might cause unregulated
dumping, which is seen a cheap solution.
e primary objective of any energy
recovery facility is to treat the waste so
as to avoid any possibility of spreading of
disease and contamination due to it. e
secondary objective is energy recovery
from the waste. WtE plants are generally
based on furnaces which have boiler for
energy recovery and a ue gas cleaning
system to ensure that minimum emissions
are released and often also generates
additional heat by ue gas condensation.
WtE plants in Europe have the strictest
environmental requirements. ough,
incineration is the dominating technology
in this sector, other technologies have also
proven useful as discussed below.
Basics of a WtE incineration plant
Incineration is a widespread technology
used in WtE plants all over the world. e
process ow of incineration with energy
recovery (WtE) is discussed below:
Input: e waste arrives in trucks which
delivers and hurls the waste in the bunker.
An overhead crane controls the grab bucket
and the waste is released to the hopper, from
where it is fed to the furnace. e overhead
crane is also used to properly mix the waste
Figure 3: Comparison of MSW Composition of low income and high income countries. Dat a Source: What a Waste, The World Bank
so that a uniform incineration is achieved.
Combustion: e temperature in the
furnace reaches around 1000 °C, using just
the waste as a fuel. e waste burns in the
presence of air and bottom ash falls on the
bed whereas the hot ue gases rise upward.
e ash is made of metals and a mineral
part. e metals can be recycled and the
mineral part can be recovered (e.g. in road
constructions) after further treatment.
Energy recovery: e heat produced
inside the boiler through the combustion is
transferred to the process water that turns
into steam. An optimization of the steam
parameters as temperature and pressure is
required in order to achieve a high eciency
from the process. e superheated steam is
transferred to a turbine, which generates
60%
2%
16%
7%
6%
9%
Vietnam
Organic Paper Plas8c Glass Metal Other
88%
4%
2%
1%
1%
4%
Ethiopia
Organic Paper Plas7c Glass Metal Other
14%
35%
22%
12%
5%
12%
Germany
Organic Paper Plas7c Glass Metal Other
24%
46%
3%
6%
13%
8%
Canada
Organic Paper Plas7c Glass Metal Other
4
electricity that is fed into the network.
Residual heat: e residual heat from
this process can be used for feeding a dis-
trict heating network with hot water, and
then the steam is nally condensed and
sent back to the boiler pipes through a
pump.
Flue gas treatment: One vital part of
such a WtE plant is the removal of toxic
and acid gases released during the inciner-
ation of the waste. Dierent types of pro-
cess such as wet, semi-dry or dry systems
are used to clean the ue gases. e choice
between them is depending on local con-
straints and technological advancements.
All these systems are being used all over
the world especially in Europe.
Wet treatment: In a wet process,
initially, the ue gas passes through the
electrostatic precipitator or bag house l-
ter, removing all the dust. e dust is col-
lected in an ash silo. en, the ue gases
pass through scrubbers which are basi-
cally washing down the ue gases in an
acid stage before a second stage where
water can be mixed with lime to clean the
gas properly. e rst scrubber cleans the
heavy metals and acidic substances. e
next scrubber removes the Sulphur di-
oxide. e last scrubber stage could con-
dense most of the moisture in the gas and
could deliver an additional 20% of energy
as heat to a district heating net. By using
a special packing material in the scrubber
stages dioxins can also be taken out from
the ue gases.
Dry treatment: Dry ue gas cleaning
is also a common process. It is based on
an injection of a very ne dry powder of
lime or sodium bicarbonate downstream
the boiler. is reactive agent captures
the acid gases. A bag house lter collects
downstream the dust, the reaction salts
and the reactive agent in excess. Active
carbon is also injected for an ecient cap-
ture of dioxins and gaseous heavy metals
such as mercury. An electrostatic precipi-
tator (ESP) could be added upstream be-
tween the boiler and the dry injection if y
ash has to be collected after the boiler, but
it is optional. Some variants of dry process
consist rst in the ue gases temperature
adjustment by cooling them in a heat ex-
changer or an evaporative tower and sec-
ond in the recirculation of the dry mixture
from bag house lter to reduce the excess
of reactive agents with a lime reactivation
by water or steam injection for example.
Semi dry treatment: Another possibil-
ity is the semi-dry process which is based on
the injection of lime milk instead of the dry
powder. is liquid is evaporated in a spray
dryer absorption tower and this forms a
ne “fog” of dry lime powder. e fabric l-
ter is used to separate all reaction products,
heavy metals and dust from the ue gases
in one step.
Emissins cleaning: Another stage of
cleaning is for reduction of nitrous oxides.
One possibility is a selective catalytic con-
verter installed downstream the main ue
gas cleaning equipment. e ue gases
pass through a ne, porous material and
are brought in contact with ammonia wa-
ter in the presence of a catalyst like tita-
nium oxide. is converts Nitrous oxides
into Nitrogen at low temperature with the
help of the catalyst. e gas is nally clean
enough to be released in the open air. is
type of cleaning is called Selective Catalyt-
ic Reduction (SCR). e other possibility
consists in Selective Non-Catalytic Reduc-
tion (SNCR). Reductants in the aqueous
form (ammonia water or urea) or gaseous
form (ammonia)are injected into hot ue
gases in the furnace at high temperature
which results in the formation of nitrogen
in a non-catalytic way. SCR and SNCR are
both used in Europe.
TECHNOLOGY
Uncontrolled dumping and landlling used
to be the solution for the MSW generation
around the globe. e motivation to shift
the regime from landlling to dierent
technologies was driven by the following
concerns: potential water (groundwater,
rivers and sea) pollution through leachate,
scarcity of space, methane emissions
from landlls and spread of pathogens.
EU policy introduced a step by step
approach to divert biodegradable waste
from landlls. Many countries in Europe
went beyond this and banned landlling of
waste that can be recycled or combusted.
Some introduced high landll taxes in
Europe. Europe started investing and
innovating in the energy from waste
sector. Now, the waste to energy sector is
dominated by the incineration technology
in the EU with strict rules on emissions
from the plants. USA and China also
adopted the incineration technology to
produce energy.
Thermal Technologies
Incineration is one of the initial
technologies developed for the waste
to energy system. Also known as direct
combustion, it was originally designed
to reduce the volume of the waste using
combustion, but was later used to recover
energy (electricity and heat). All the
incineration WtE plants in the OECD
Figure 4: Schematic illustration of wate to energy incineration plant (with kind attention of Keppel Seghers)
Ashes and metals
Boiler
Separation of
gases and vapor
Firing grate
Feeding unit
Electrical output
to grid Turbo
alternator
Steam to
turbines
District heating grid
Bunker
Input
Stack
5
countries have to meet strict emission
standards after directive 2010/75/EU.
e use of incineration in these countries
has signicantly reduced the usage of
landlling which used to emit a large
amount of methane, that has a Global
Warming Potential (GWP) 28 times bigger
than carbon dioxide. Detailed explanation
of the process is available in the previous
section.
ough, incineration plants are bench-
mark in the energy recovery platform and
still under development for example to rise
steam temperatures to 500°C to further
enhance the electricity eciency, there are
proven and emerging technologies being
used to produce energy from waste with-
out direct combustion. ese technologies
claim to increase the electrical eciency of
the whole system by removing the corro-
sive components from the converted fuel,
hence better combustion temperatures are
achieved.
One example of a the new plants built
today with Keppel Seghers technoogy is
the Phase III Baoan WtE as in the picture
above.
is facility will be of its kind the biggest
in the world with processing capacity of 3
million tonnes per year.
Gasication process converts carbon
containing material into an energy rela-
tively poor syngas by partial oxidation,
mainly composed of a mixture of carbon
monoxide and hydrogen with traces of
water vapour, nitrogen and carbon diox-
ide. e technology is not developed in
comparison to the incineration process for
solid waste but this technology might hold
potential. It might reach an overall higher
eciency with a better gas quality. Japan
and Republic of Korea use this technology
for the past 20 years. Syngas is directly
burned downstream the gasier, mainly
for a purpose of direct melting of a part of
residues taking in consideration the spe-
cic quality of MSW in these countries.
In Europe, developments were made,
for e.g. Lahti Energy's Kymijär vi II power
plant which was the rst gasication pow-
er plant in the world to eciently generate
electricity and district heat from MSW. At
the plant, MSW is gasied, the gas is cooled
and cleaned before combustion. e plant
produces 50 MW electricity and 90 MW
district heat for the city of Lahti. Other
regions in Europe are trying to develop it.
It also has a potential in India because of
increase in small gasiers. For more infor-
mation, refer the WBA Factsheet ermo-
chemical Gasication of Biomass.
Pyrolysis is a thermo-chemical conver-
sion of organic material under the absence
of oxygen at high temperatures. is re-
sults in irreversible changes of the fuel.
e resultant product can be both syngas
and biooil depending on the speed of py-
rolysis. Because of the low quality of these
products obtained from MSW, they are
generally burned directly in a post com-
bustion reactor. ere is still research go-
ing on in this technology so as to operate it
at large industrial size level.
Plasma Arc Gasification uses plasma
arc with the help of carbon electrodes,
copper, tungsten, hafnium or zirconium
to reach gasication temperatures. e
plasma temperature ranges from 2200-
11000 °C which creates a high value syngas.
is technology can be used to reduce
waste, even hazardous and still generate
energy. It produces lower NOx, SOx and
CO2 emissions due to higher temperatures
and it has no odour as for combustion.
Currently, this technology is being used in
Japan in around 10 plants (Cicero 2009),
but only one is in commercial operation for
MSW.
Facility in Shenzhen, China. Phase II I Baoan WtE is built with Keppel Seghers technology. The plant will process waste equivalent to 46 truckloads every hour, or
9000 tonnes per day. The energy produced is enough for 3 million citizens or 13 million 40W light bulbs. T his will replace the generating capacity of 700 00 0
tonnes of coal each year, with the effect of cutting CO2 emissions by around 2 million tonnes p er year.
6
Non – Thermal Technologies
Anaerobic digestion is a biological con-
version process which occurs under the
absence of oxygen with anaerobic micro-
organisms. It can handle both wet and dry
feedstock. It produces energy rich biogas
composed of a mixture of methane and
CO2 and digested residue. e biogas can
be used to generate electricity and heat
or to produce biofuels. e residue can be
used as a fertilizer for soil if it is produced
according to the regulations with adapted
feedstock. e major problem with this
technology is that it needs a good process
control due to the presence of microorgan-
isms and hence any change in conditions
can disrupt the process. Also, it requires
a consistent input of homogenous waste
and hence, organic part of MSW should be
used. Small scale digesters are pre domi-
nant in rural areas in developing countries.
In Europe and US, this technology is
used to treat wet waste and sludge, but
also to produce energy from biomass such
as corn.. ere were around 13800 plants
in Europe and 2200 plants in US , mostly
installed in farms and fed with biomass.
In Asia, this technology is used in a wide-
spread manner for the production of bio-
gas with around 40 million plants in Chi-
na, nearly 5 million in India and 300,000
in Nepal. (REN21, 2014)
Landll process produces methane in a
large quantity. An uncontrolled release of
methane is harmful for the environment
because it has a higher GWP (28 times
bigger than carbon dioxide). e accu-
mulation of the gas can lead to re safety
hazard. Hence, the gas should be safely col-
lected in a controlled manner. e gas can
either be used to generate electricity or it
might be converted into a liquid fuel after
cleaning. Energy recovery from landll gas
is prevalent in developing countries.
POLICIES AND REGULATIONS
Most of the countries in the EU have a well
established waste management system.
e reason EU has such a strong focus
towards material and energy recovery is
because of the strict environmental rules
and regulations revolving around the land-
ll dumping of waste. In US, it is cheaper
to dump the waste in landlls. e landll
tipping fee in US is about 44 USD per ton
in comparison to 193 USD per ton in Swe-
den (Gershman 2013).
European Union
In EU, the Council Directive 1999/31/EC
on the landlling of waste obliges Member
States to minimize biodegradable waste to
landlls to 75% by 2006, 50% by 2009 and
35% by 2016, and to treat it before disposal.
e Directive also denes wastes which are
not to be accepted in any landll and sets
up a system of operating permits for land-
ll sites.
According to the Directive 2010/75/
EU on industrial emissions, the European
Union imposes strict operating conditions
and technical requirements on waste in-
cineration plants in order to prevent or
reduce air, water and soil pollution caused
by the incineration of waste. e directive
requires a permit based on best available
techniques and emission limits are intro-
duced for certain pollutants released to air
or to water.
e Waste Framework Directive
2008/98/EC on waste provides for a gen-
eral framework of waste management
requirements and sets the basic waste
management denitions for the EU. It laid
down some important laws like “Polluter
pays principal” where the producer has a
signicant sense of responsibility of the
products being generated and the environ-
mental pollution and waste along with the
products and hence aim at the reduction of
the waste. It also put down the waste hi-
erarchy as discussed in the introduction.
(European Union, 2008)
USA
e Solid Waste Disposal Act was the
rst attempt by US Federal government
to improve the waste disposal technology.
Due to the increase in waste generation,
the act had to be amended and in 1970 it
was changed to Resource Conservation
and Recovery Act (RCRA).
RCRA gave Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) the authority to control haz-
Garbage collection in cities.
Photo: Pixabay
DEFINITIONS OF MUNICIPAL SOLID WASTE
IEA
Municipal waste consists of wastes produced by households, industry, hospitals and the tertiary sector that are collected by local authorities.
European Commission
Municipal waste is mainly produced by households, though similar wastes from sources such as commerce, offices and public institutions are included. The
amount of municipal waste generated consists of waste collected by or on behalf of municipal authorities and disposed of through the waste management system
OECD
Municipal waste is defined as waste collected and treated by or for municipalities. It covers waste from households, including bulky waste, similar waste from
commerce and trade, office buildings, institutions and small businesses, as well as yard and garden waste, street sweepings, the contents of litter containers, and
market cleansing waste if managed as household waste. The definition excludes waste from municipal sewage networks and treatment, as well as waste from
construction and demolition activities. This indicator is measured in thousand tons and in kilograms per capita.
7
ardous waste. is includes the generation,
transportation, treatment, storage, and
disposal of hazardous waste. RCRA also
set forth a framework for the management
of non-hazardous wastes. It also banned
open dumping in US. ough, there are
laws in US regarding waste disposal, the
laws are not comprehensive enough as
compared to the EU.
WASTE LOGISTICS
Waste collection is another important as-
pect. e collection system ensures that
public health is maintained in a commu-
nity. e method of collection depends on
the country and the income level of the
country. It can also vary widely within the
country. In the global arena, the average
waste collection coverage ranges from as
low as 41% in low income countries to 98%
in many high income countries. South Asia
and Africa tend to have low collection rates
with 65% and 46% respectively (Hoornweg
D, 2012). is has a direct impact on the
eciency of the solid waste management
system. Waste collection can be done in
several ways (Hoornweg D, 2012):
1. Individual Household Collection:
e waste is collected from each house in-
dividually. e user has to pay a fee for the
services.
2. Community Trash Bins: e users
bring their MSW at a single place in a
neighborhood or locality and it is picked
up by municipality services.
3. Curb – side pick up: Users keep their
MSW in front of their houses according to
the pick up service schedule.
4. Self Delivery: e users have to deliver
the waste to the facility either themselves
or using some 3rd party service.
Waste is typically collected in bins or
containers. In some countries loose bags
are collected where storage space is not
enough to house bins or containers. Auto-
mated waste collection systems are used in
some countries, predominantly in Europe
and Asia, for denser urban developments.
Waste and recyclables are stored under-
ground and air transported from each
house long distance underground to a col-
lection station from where it is picked up
in containers for recycling or WtE. Other
collection systems include underground
containers, with and without compactors
that provide more waste storage than on
ground bins and containers. Depending
upon the regulations of the country, the
collected MSW is either mixed or sepa-
rated before treatment. e consumers
are advised to separate waste at the source
into organic fraction and non - organic
fraction. is segregation eases the pro-
cess of sorting for recycling. ough, in
some developing countries, the recyclables
are segregated manually by the waste pick-
TABLE 1: REGION WISE WASTE GENERATION
REGION WASTE GENERATION (Kg/Capita/Day)
Sub – Saharan Africa 0.65
Eastern and Pacific Asia 0.95
Eastern and Central Asia 1.1
Latin America and Caribbean 1.1
Middle East and North Africa 1.1
OECD 2.2
South Asia 0.45
Figure 5: Waste to energy plants around the world. Data Source: (ISWA, 2013)
Figure 6: Worldwide waste treatment technologies (ISWA 2013)
Europe
23%
USA
4%
Japan
45%
ChinaandSouthKorea
5%
RestoftheWorld
23%
NumberofWtEPlants
8
ers and hence the process is inecient. For
example, in Buenos Aires, waste pickers re-
move the recyclables from the garbage and
hence create scattered waste. Hence, there
is an additional cost of removing the scat-
tered waste. (Hoornweg D, 2012)
FEEDSTOCK
e composition and amount of the solid
wastes from a municipality varies depend-
ing on the “level of economic development,
cultural norms, geographical location, en-
ergy sources, and climate” (Hoornweg D,
2012).
Waste composition is a very important
aspect because it aects the characteristics
like density, moisture content and calo-
ric value. ese characteristics aect the
choice of technology, the eciency of the
plant and the overall waste management
system. With the increase in plastics, pa-
per and packaging content in high income
countries, the caloric value has also in-
creased. Whereas the increased organic
content in low income countries make the
waste wetter, reducing the quality of MSW.
e renewability of the feedstock is a
big debate. e energy produced from the
biogenic part of the MSW is considered to
be renewable in nature. Generally, more
than 50% of MSW is biogenic with organic
fraction, paper, cardboard etc. Hence,
more than 50% of the energy generated
from MSW can be considered renewable.
(European Union, 2009) e percentage
of renewable energy from waste can be
increased if proper usage of resources is
practiced by the consumers. e segrega-
tion of the waste during the source itself
plays a major role in the increased ecien-
cy of the plant as well as the renewability
of the feedstock.
GLOBAL USAGE
In 2013, there were 2,200 waste to energy
plants operating in the world as seen in
gure 5. ese plants utilized 255 million
tons of waste per year. By 2017, another
180 plants with a capacity of 52 million
tons will be added. Most of the waste to
energy plants have been installed in areas
like Europe, Japan, China and the USA be-
cause of higher investment opportunities.
In US, there are 89 plants - about 12 % of
waste is combusted for energy recovery
mostly of the mass burn incineration type.
Compared to the US, European Waste-to-
Energy Plants can supply 38 TWh of elec-
tricity and 88 TWh of heat, from 88 mil-
POSITION OF WBA
Waste is a major problem in every nation around the world. Moreover, with increasing migration of population from rural
to urban areas, the challenge of managing municipal solid waste will be immense in the coming years. Increasing amount
of waste coupled with mismanagement means rising costs for governments and a bigger impact on the environment and
public health. The most prominent and ineffective mode of disposal is via landfills.
WBA promotes that managing of waste should follow the heirarchy structure - reduce, reuse, recycle and recovery with
the last option of disposal. Efficient utilization of resources is the first step followed by energy recovery. Countries in the
Nordic region are already pioneers in resource efficiency and energy recovery so much so that some countries have to
import waste to satisfy energy demand in the country.
Various technologies and pathways already exist in the conversion of waste to energy including incineration, gasification,
pyrolysis, anaerobic digestion etc. Strict emission rules ensure that the waste is effectively utilized with lower impacts on
the environment. The cost of conversion and feedstock logistics are some of the challenges which have to be addressed
along with strong policies preventing dumping and incentivizing recycling and energy recovery should be promoted. Key
is proper information dissemination among the general public. Good data on global waste production and utilization is also
another key challenge to be addressed.
WBA believes that energy recovery from waste will be a major sector in the future enabling cities and regions to be energy
secure, reduce dependency on fossil fuels and efficient utilization of resources.
lion tons of residual household and similar
waste that was treated in 2014 in Europe.
Japan has incineration plants because of
low landll space. (Planning Commission
of India, 2014)
Landlling remained the major form of
waste treatment as seen in gure 6 but the
scenario is changing with major focus on
recycling and energy recovery from waste
around the world. Dumping has been re-
duced but the health impacts of landlling
remain very high, as do GHG emissions.
Open dumping is responsible for 10%
of global methane emission. e type of
waste disposal treatment depends upon
the income level of the country, higher
the income, better the technology applied.
(IEA Bioenergy, 2014)
e energy recovery sector has devel-
oped a lot in the past few years. It holds a
lot of potential in the future. In an optimis-
tic scenario, it can play a role in the energy
security of a country and can be benecial
in reducing the energy poverty around the
globe. e resources, if managed properly
can become a source of energy rather than
being a menace for a community. n
9
World Bioenergy Association, Holländargatan 17, SE 111 60 Stockholm, Sweden
Tel. + 46 (0)8 441 70 80, info@worldbioenergy.org, www.worldbioenergy.org
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wablesandWaste
15. Planning Commission of India. (2014).
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Official supporter of WBA: Enerstena Group of Companies
Factsheet supporters:
Silver supporter of WBA:
Keppel Seghers is part of the Keppel Corporation Group
and a world leader in Waste to Energy for past 45 years.
The company has developed expertise in waste to energy
technology thanks to return on experience from numerous
international references.
*WBA would like to acknowledge the support of Pranav Dadhich in developing the factsheet.
