Experience of using municipal solid waste in the energy industry (An Overview)

Abstract

The status of municipal solid waste (MSW) utilization for energy purposes in Europe, the United States, and China is revealed, showing that MSW has long been among alternative fuels abroad and is widely used as a renewable energy source. Energy utilities often deal with the construction and operation of thermal waste-to-energy facilities. Currently, thanks to the use of the best available technologies (BAT), among which are incineration in mechanical grate stokers and in vertex fluidized-bed furnaces, and multistage gas treatment, the problems of environmentally safe operation of facilities for MSW-to-energy utilization have been fully resolved. The main research is aimed at improving the energy efficiency of these facilities, primarily, by increasing steam parameters and organizing its intermediate superheating. It is shown that a high efficiency of converting the MSW energy potential into electricity can also be reached by integrating MSW incinerators into the heat flow scheme of thermal power plants, whose main fuel is coal or gas. Examples are given of active foreign MSW-to-energy facilities improved to increase electricity efficiency to 30% and more.