Financial feasibility of waste-to-energy technologies for municipal solid waste management in Muscat, Sultanate of Oman

Abstract

Oman has witnessed a rapid growth in the generation of municipal solid waste due to the ever-increasing urbanization and expanding population. This escalation in the generation of municipal solid waste has burdened the existing waste management infrastructure and increased the carbon footprint of the sector. Therefore, the need of an integrated waste management system is rising in Oman and establishing waste-to-energy technologies is becoming an absolute necessity. Therefore, this study investigates the financial feasibility of incineration, gasification and anaerobic digestion technologies in the Muscat governorate of Oman. The potential cost and revenue streams during the economic life of waste-to-energy plants are estimated to evaluate the profitability of projects by a set of financial parameters. Incineration has emerged as the most profitable strategy with the positive net present value of 255 million USD compared to 169 and 97.9 million USD for anaerobic digestion and gasification, respectively. Furthermore, incineration offers higher energy potential at lower cost (0.06 USD/kWh) than gasification (0.11 USD/kWh) and AD (0.16 USD/kWh). However, AD plant turns out more favorable in terms of profitability index, payback period, and internal rate of return and levelized cost of waste, mainly due to the low investment cost. This study concludes that incineration stands out among all options because of the higher profitability, waste treating capacity, energy generation and carbon footprint savings. The sensitivity analysis reveals that change in carbon credit allowance affects the profitability of all waste-to-energy plants, whereas electricity tariff and capital investment affect only incineration and gasification.