Estimating the Energy Recovery Potential from Municipal Solid Waste in Ha’il Region (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia)

Abstract

In the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), the need of an agile solid waste management (SWM) system is vital to control safely the rapid growth of its municipal solid waste (MSW) with minimal environment toll. Further, the domestic energy production in KSA is thriving and putting a tremendous pressure on its reserves of fossil oil. Waste-to-energy (WTE) plants provides an excellent opportunity, even if MSW mitigation and energy production are usually considered separately. Energy recovery (ER) from waste is not a new field of study; however, its implementation remains a challenge in KSA. Although there is abundance of useful waste in the urban markets, practices aiming at WTE conversion are still negligible. In the KSA, so-called green markets are abundant with renewable energy potential, yet the practical implementation of this potential is missing. This work aims to present the worldwide SWM methods, the classification and the characteristics of solid waste in KSA especially in Ha’il region. In addition, the present research deals with the evaluation of waste generation in Ha’il region for the ER purpose and depicts that WTE is not only environmentally friendly but also financially rewarding. Data were collected regarding solid waste in Ha’il region and the calculations of ER potential from solid waste were conducted. The obtained results show that ER from solid waste can save energy consumption in Ha’il region; the saving factor was estimated to be 18%.