Economic and environmental review of Waste-to-Energy systems for municipal solid waste management in medium and small municipalities

Fernández-González, José María; Grindlay, Alejandro L.; Bernardo, Francisco Serrano; Rodríguez-Rojas, M.I.; Zamorano, M.

doi:10.1016/j.wasman.2017.05.003

Cited by 179 publications

(69 citation statements)

References 59 publications

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“…Nevertheless, this question should be detailed in future research provided that official and precise statistics were available within a geographical area sufficient to draw conclusions; for instance, recent studies have shown that a local administration does not need to have a high economic level or be highly populated to reach a satisfactory level of eco-efficiency (Díaz-Villavicencio et al, 2017). Moreover, to offset a hypothetical increase in management costs, waste could produce inputs to promote the transition to a circular economy, such as the introduction of Waste-to-Energy systems (Fernández-González et al, 2017).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Factors related to municipal costs of waste collection service in Spain

Fernández-Aracil

Ortuño-Padilla

Melgarejo

2018

Journal of Cleaner Production

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Actual cost of services of local entities (CESEL, in Spanish) is the name of a new official source of statistics in Spain, provided by Ministry of Finance and Civil Service, which intends to bring some transparency to a very obscure question: the real costs of local public services, in this case, the collection costs of municipal solid waste (MSW). The study analyzes the factors that determine solid waste collection costs in 2014, using a cross-sectional dataset of municipalities of the Spanish Mediterranean Arch and Madrid, with special reference to urban development. The results of the regression reveal a positive relation between waste collection costs and factors such as higher wages, coastal municipalities, tourist areas, population and separated collection; in contrast, the increase in urban population density contributes to lower costs of MSW collection, as well as indirect management of the service is cheaper than direct public delivery.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Factors related to municipal costs of waste collection service in Spain

Fernández-Aracil

Ortuño-Padilla

Melgarejo

2018

Journal of Cleaner Production

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“…where G is the number of tons processed per day (t/day) and R f is the percentage of rejection after the mechanical treatment. The efficiency of the process is 23% [20].…”

Section: Gasificationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Some authors have also assessed the energy recovery potential of biogas from anaerobic digestion for generating electricity or thermal energy in Spain, Brazil, China and Tanzania [16][17][18][19]. In particular, Fernandez-González showed that this technology is appropriate in areas where waste generation ranges from low to medium levels [20].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Municipal Solid Waste as a Source of Electric Power Generation in Colombia: A Techno-Economic Evaluation under Different Scenarios

2019

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This work evaluates the techno-economic prefeasibility of waste to energy projects in Colombia using four different conversion technologies of incineration, gasification, anaerobic digestion and landfill gas. Three study cases were selected to represent typical urban centers in Colombia, which were namely Guayatá, Andes and Pasto. After feasible technologies were identified for each case, their energy recovery potential was calculated based on the mathematical models and publicly available information about the composition of the wastes produced in these three municipalities. A subsequent economic analysis was conducted by applying the incentives established in Law 1715 for projects involving non-conventional renewable energy sources. The cash flows produced by each technology in the three scenarios were evaluated to obtain the Internal Rate of Return (IRR), which was found to be influenced by the benefits of this legislation. However, the economic benefits were not significant in the small municipality of Guayatá. In turn, in Andes, a high electricity price (100 USD/MWh) would entail a positive IRR of 2.6%. In Pasto, which is the biggest city of the three, the maximum IRR of landfill gas and anaerobic digestion reached 13.59% and 14.27%, respectively. The results show that these types of projects can have positive economic results if tax and government incentives are taken into account.

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“…Processing of solid waste can be carried out by biological and thermal methods. Biological methods (in particular, using aerobic technology based on oxidation by means of special microorganisms, and anaerobic digestion) are used for the processing of food, plant, and paper waste [4][5][6][7][8][9][10]. Aerobic composting output is used as a soil improver.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Investigation of the Feasibility of the Organic Municipal Solid Waste Processing by Coking

2019

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In the context of transition to a circular economy, one of the strategic priorities is the development of technological innovations aimed at waste processing. In this study, the foundations have been developed for a low-temperature, environmentally safe method for efficient processing of organic municipal solid waste, which may be further applied for processing both municipal and industrial waste organics in order to obtain liquid products. The maximum yield of liquid products is ensured when conducting the coking of a mixture of organic waste with long residuum in the temperature range of 400-420 • C, with a heating rate of 5-70 • C/min, and with an optimal heating time to the coking temperature of 80 min. Recommendations on the use of the waste recycling products are given. The proposed process is consistent with the principles of circular economy and does not require external energy costs because the energy needed for the process is generated by burning the gas produced during the waste coking. The process does not produce emissions into the environment and, in combination with standard refining processes, can be used to obtain commercial petroleum products.Thermal methods of waste processing include incineration, torrefaction, pyrolysis, gasification [8,12]. The disadvantage of thermal waste processing methods is their high costs. These methods do not provide environmental safety of the process, and the products obtained are not suitable for use without additional quality improvement with the help of expensive processes. For instance, to increase the thermal efficiency of energy production from moisture-containing waste by pyrolysis and gasification, preliminary drying of raw materials is required, which increases operating costs. In thermal processing of waste, secondary slags are formed that require further utilization or disposal. The exhaust gases contain toxic compounds and require neutralization. Environmental impact caused by the processes of generating energy from waste was analyzed in review [13]. The points among all are local impacts from wood combustion and processes of the solid recovered fuel generation, also it should be noted that the innovative technologies applied to thermochemical processes at the waste-to-energy plants do not give absolute advantages in preventing environmental pollution.Processing of MSW is considered also as an opportunity to produce motor fuels, olefins and aromatic compounds [14,15]. In view of the fact that municipal solid waste can also contain non-combustible substances, there is a problem with the necessity of an expensive pre-treatment stage [16].There are a number of studies on thermal and catalytic decomposition of plastic waste [17][18][19][20][21][22]. The quality of plastic waste products derived through pyrolysis depends on the composition of the raw materials, and the effect of catalysts [19,23]. Joint catalytic processing of plastic waste and heavy oil residues is considered as a possible way to obtain fuel oil [24]. Cai et al. [25] offer alternative techn...

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Economic and environmental review of Waste-to-Energy systems for municipal solid waste management in medium and small municipalities

Cited by 179 publications

References 59 publications

Factors related to municipal costs of waste collection service in Spain

Factors related to municipal costs of waste collection service in Spain

Municipal Solid Waste as a Source of Electric Power Generation in Colombia: A Techno-Economic Evaluation under Different Scenarios

An Investigation of the Feasibility of the Organic Municipal Solid Waste Processing by Coking

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