The analysis of electricity production and greenhouse-gas emission reduction from municipal solid waste sector in Oman

Abstract

Oman has witnessed a steady growth in greenhouse-gas emissions due to the increase in population and generation of municipal solid waste. Therefore, with the growing greenhouse-gas emissions, waste and energy demands, establishing waste-to-energy technologies is becoming an absolute necessity in Oman. The opportunities to mitigate greenhouse gas from the waste sector in Oman are not exploited or studied, and therefore, this study proposes a holistic quantification model to analyze future municipal solid waste management options. The quantification model is created through a set of assessment tools, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change models and emissions factors, and inputs to the model are based on the conditions of Oman. Total emissions from the disposal of municipal solid waste in landfills are estimated to increase from 2849 GgCO2eq in 2010 to 5565 GgCO2eq in 2030, whereas implementation of incineration, gasification and anaerobic digestion could reduce a total of 6257, 5489 and 4958 GgCO2eq in 2030, respectively, and could simultaneously generate 2096, 1205 and 136 GWh of electricity, respectively. Therefore, through carbon credits and sale of electricity, incineration could attract a total revenue of US$192 million, higher than gasification (US$139 million) and anaerobic digestion (US$81 million) in 2030. The higher potential of incineration to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions is attributed to its ability of treating higher amounts of waste and generating higher energy than gasification and anaerobic digestion. Therefore, this study concludes that incineration is the most optimum technology for Oman in terms of reducing volume of waste and greenhouse-gas emissions and generating energy and revenue.