Abstract
Municipal solid waste (MSW) is an important energy resource for combined heat and power (CHP) production. This study summarized an overview of CHP by MSW to energy (WtE) plants in South Korea and discussed the issues related to energy efficiency improvement. Given the dominant housing culture of apartment living in South Korea, the primary energy output of WtE plants has been for district heating. In 2010, approximately half of the 51 large WtE plants were CHP, while the rest produced heat. Power generation in the WtE CHP plants was estimated to be only 3.65% of the thermal input, while heat production was 60.79%. The R1 efficiency when compared to that in Europe was similar for the CHP plants and higher for heat-only plants. Improving power generation efficiency is required for new power plants producing steam at pressures higher than the current level of 20–30 bar. Over ten of the existing plants needed to increase their energy efficiency by installing new equipment such as steam turbines for excess steam. Finally, transboundary centralization of WtE plants between neighboring local authorities is essential for heat utilization since many existing small-scale plants (<50 t/day capacity) do not recover heat.
Highlights
Waste management with a low environmental impact is an essential element of modern society
The status of municipal solid wastes (MSW) energy recovery in Korea was reviewed and its issues related to achieving a high energy efficiency were discussed
With a decrease in the fraction of food waste, the lower heating value (LHV) of MSW has gradually increased to 11.9 MJ/kg
Summary
Waste management with a low environmental impact is an essential element of modern society. WtE plant for CHP can achieve overall energy (power and heat) efficiencies as high as 85% of the energy content in MSW [10]. Recognizing the importance of MSW for WtE, in 2008 the Korean government announced a new ―Waste to Energy Strategic Plan‖ [17], which aims to increase energy recovery and utilization for all available non-recyclable wastes from the current level of 32% to. This is one of essential elements of the National Energy Plan announced in 2008 [18], which set ambitious national targets and introduced many new measures for sustainable development These targets include increasing renewable energy production to 11% of the national total by 2030.
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