The Role of Municipal Solid Waste Incineration for Greenhouse Gas Mitigation : Towards Sustainable Energy Systems in Southeast Asia

This paper presents an evaluation of the potential of municipal solid waste incinerationfor greenhouse gas mitigation and promotion of biomass-based electricity productionin a more sustainable direction in Southeast Asia. Beyond political and environmentalpressures, renewable energy sources are inherently attractive and have become a globalconcern. Resource constraints and rapid growth in world energy demand have alreadybrought oil prices over record levels. Developing countries – especially in high economicgrowth regions of Southeast Asia – often have strained resources and suffer as a result.Enhanced energy security and renewable energy development is high on the publicagenda in Thailand and other countries in Asia. Biomass and municipal solid waste(MSW) have widely been accepted as important renewable energy sources because theymay be used as carbon dioxide (CO2) mitigation concepts. Solid waste management hasbecome a crucial issue in Southeast Asia since the most popular form for waste disposalstill employs open dumping. The overall objective of this investigation is to promotesound MSW management practices including waste-to-energy (WTE) recovery, as wellas to promote an expansion of biomass-based electricity. The energy recovery potentialof MSW is analyzed by investigating various types of incineration technologies. Bothconventional and more advanced hybrid dual-fuel cycles are considered to evaluate cycleperformance (electrical efficiency), CO2 emission and economic aspects. Results show that there is significant potential for environmental and waste management improvements viaMSW incineration. In Bangkok only, power production via hybrid power plants employingintegrated natural gas-fired topping cycles can achieve up to 4 TWh and 10 TWhin 2008 and 2030, respectively. The reduction of CO2 emissions is even more attractivewhen hybrid dual-fuel cycles are combined. CO2 reductions of 670 and 1,800 thousandtons, respectively, can be met in comparison with current
QC 20110408