Analysis of Current Status and Regulatory Promotion for Incineration Bottom Ash Recycling in Taiwan

Chi-Hung Tsai,Yun-Hwei Shen,Wen-Tien Tsai

doi:10.3390/resources9100117

Abstract

Incineration is the most important technology for treating municipal solid waste (MSW) and industrial waste in Taiwan. Currently, there are 24 large-scale MSW incineration plants operated to generate about 1.2 million metric tons of residual ash (mostly bottom ash) based on approximately 6.5 million metric tons of waste incinerated yearly. To reduce the depletion of non-renewable resources under the circular economy principle, the recycling of MSW incineration bottom ash (IBA) as recycled aggregate in concrete and construction applications has been progressed in recent years around the world. According to the official database, the trend analysis of MSW generation and treatment, electricity power and IBA generation from the MSW incineration plants over the past decade (2010–2019) was performed in this work. It showed an increased power generation, growing from 0.485 kWh/kg in 2010 to 0.530 kWh/kg in 2019. In 2019, 2738 GWh of power was sold to Taipower (one of the state-owned companies in Taiwan) for electricity grid connection, gaining income of about NT$ 5,089,383,000 (≈US$ 172,520,000) at an average rate of 1.86 NT$/kWh (0.063 US$/kWh). On the other hand, the ratios of incineration bottom ash (IBA) generation to refuse incinerated indicated a decreasing trend due to the increased operation efficiencies of MSW incineration plants. Based on the revised regulations implemented on 18 May 2020, the regulatory measures for promoting IBA recycling in Taiwan were promulgated to valorize it for the production of recycled aggregate under rigorous requirements for prevent it from polluting the environment.

Highlights

Besides recycling and reuse, incineration may be the most commonly used management option for the treatment of municipal solid waste (MSW) and industrial waste in developed and developing countries [1]
The so-called general waste in Taiwan is equivalent to garbage or MSW because it is generated from all non-industrial community sources like households, businesses, and municipal services
The updated regulation will take effect on January 1, 2021. This regulation was based on leaching scenarios and their control purposes when the recycled aggregate from incineration bottom ash (IBA) was used in the environment

Summary

Introduction

Incineration may be the most commonly used management option for the treatment of municipal solid waste (MSW) and industrial waste in developed and developing countries [1]. The waste-to-energy (WTE) or energy recovery from MSW incineration plants has been considered as one of biomass energy sources. The emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) from waste management have shown a string decrease due to the development of WTE and other recycling processes, especially in methane emissions from landfills [2,3,4,5,6]. MSW incineration can prevent groundwater and surface water pollution as compared to the waste disposed of in sanitary landfills. It should be noted that MSW incineration plants require well-operated control systems for flue gas cleaning and residual ash (i.e., bottom ash and fly ash) treatment, which can contaminate the environment if not handled appropriately and efficiently [7,8,9,10,11]

Methods

Results

Conclusion