Municipal Solid Waste Energy Recovery Research Articles

Technical-economic analysis of a municipal solid waste energy recovery facility in Spain: A case study

The aim of this work is to carry out a technical-economic analysis of an energy recovery facility (ERF) located in Sant Adrià de Besòs, Barcelona, Spain through a methodology based on social Cost-Benefit analysis, which considers the private impacts and externalities (social and environmental impacts) to determine the Total Benefit (the difference between revenues and costs) and decide if it is both operationally and economically profitable. The ERF plays an important role in Barcelona and its environs in generating energy, preventing the residual waste from being sent to landfills and therefore helping to comply with the objectives fixed by the European Commission. The key point of this work is the identification, frequency, quantification and monetary valuation of the impacts generated by the ERF, such as infrastructure costs, sale of energy, CO2 emissions, the effects on public health, among others; providing a guide to future researchers and policymakers interested in the economic valuation of MSW management systems. Applying the methodology, it can be seen that the facility is both operationally (BP = 9.86 €/ton) and economically (BT = 23.97 €/ton) profitable. The results show that the ERF has high private costs, however, due to its high revenues from the sale of energy and services, the facility is operationally profitable, but with a low private benefit per ton treated. Externalities play an important role since they increase the Total Benefit and make the ERF more economic reliable.

Optimal municipal solid waste energy recovery and management: A mathematical programming approach

A multi-period approach to municipal solid waste (MSW) management is proposed. The analysis includes the optimization of a MSW network considering waste reduction processes and landfilling. The optimization of the transportation of MSW to its potential destinations has been addressed using a direct-hauling system and an optimally allocated off-municipality transfer station. As the main component in the formulation, an optimal landfill gas (LFG) to energy design is obtained to improve the economics of the landfill operation; the design involves the installation of several harnessing technologies according to the annual increase or decay of the LFG flow rate. A case-study for a municipality in Mexico has been solved through the GAMS® modeling environment. The resulting mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) model has been assessed through several scenarios. The results show that the installation of an LFG-to-electricity system and a materials recycling facility achieve the minimum overall cost of the MSW management.

Combined Municipal Solid Waste and biomass system optimization for district energy applications

Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) disposal has been a controversial issue in many countries over the past years, due to disagreement among the various stakeholders on the waste management policies and technologies to be adopted. One of the ways of treating/disposing MSW is energy recovery, as waste is considered to contain a considerable amount of bio-waste and therefore can lead to renewable energy production. The overall efficiency can be very high in the cases of co-generation or tri-generation. In this paper a model is presented, aiming to support decision makers in issues relating to Municipal Solid Waste energy recovery. The idea of using more fuel sources, including MSW and agricultural residue biomass that may exist in a rural area, is explored. The model aims at optimizing the system specifications, such as the capacity of the base-load Waste-to-Energy facility, the capacity of the peak-load biomass boiler and the location of the facility. Furthermore, it defines the quantity of each potential fuel source that should be used annually, in order to maximize the financial yield of the investment. The results of an energy tri-generation case study application at a rural area of Greece, using mixed MSW and biomass, indicate positive financial yield of investment. In addition, a sensitivity analysis is performed on the effect of the most important parameters of the model on the optimum solution, pinpointing the parameters of interest rate, investment cost and heating oil price, as those requiring the attention of the decision makers. Finally, the sensitivity analysis is enhanced by a stochastic analysis to determine the effect of the volatility of parameters on the robustness of the model and the solution obtained.

ASME/US Bureau of Mines investigative program on vitrification of combustion ash/residue: findings and conclusions

Vitrification of the residues from thermal processes into a dense, glass-like material may provide an opportunity to permanently relieve our concerns regarding aquifer contamination and, if the vitrified products are utilized, conserves those land areas which are suitable for disposal for those discards for which we have not as yet found a practical use. This discussion briefly describes and illustrates the implementation of the $1.2 million ASME/BuMines investigative program; the scope and methods followed, equipment systems employed, areas of investigation, findings and conclusions in determining the potential effectiveness of sequentially vitrifying significant quantities of ash/residue from three different types of mass burning municipal solid waste energy recovery facilities, a regional wastewater treatment plant sludge combustor, and air quality control products from a large refuse derived fuel energy recovery facility while utilizing for this purpose a fraction of the electric energy recovered; identifying potential beneficial applications for the resulting products, the environmental implications and projected overall economics.