Municipal Solid Waste Management and Waste to Energy Alternatives in Thailand

Rapid expansion of industry, urbanization and increasing population, especially in large cities likeBangkok, has dramatically increased the amount of municipal solid waste (MSW) generated inThailand. However, issues related to sound municipal solid waste management – including recycling programs, waste reduction, and disposal – have not been addressed adequately. Landfilling is currently the most popular form of waste disposal for some 14 million tons of waste annually, although the majority of facilities do not employ modern techniques like landfill gas recovery. It is clear that there is a pressing need to develop and deploy new alternatives in order to minimize the environmental impacts at all links in the municipal solid waste chain. Waste to energy facilities can play a key role in ensuring a swift and economically viable shift to improved municipal solid waste management inThailandand other areas ofAsia. In addition, positive environmental benefits can be achieved in parallel (i.e. reduction of greenhouse gas emissions via minimizing open dumping and expansion of a biomass-based electricity production method). The objective of this work is to investigate municipal solid waste management and electric power production through incineration of municipal solid waste inThailand. This paper contains a survey of current municipal solid waste management practices along with the current energy situation inThailand. The energy recovery potential of municipal solid waste is analyzed by investigating various types of incineration technologies. In particular hybrid dual-fuel cycles, which integrate municipal solid waste and high-quality fuels like natural gas in an innovative fashion, are considered to be promising solutions. Results show that there is significant potential for environmental and waste management improvements via municipal solid waste incineration.
QC 20111116