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Scholarly Article: Salman Zafar

Waste-to-Energy as a Tool for Sustainable Development

The term “waste-to-energy” has traditionally referred to the practice of incineration of
garbage. Today, a new generation of waste-to-energy technologies is emerging which hold
the potential to create renewable energy from waste matter; waste feed-stocks can include
municipal solid waste (MSW); construction and demolition débris; agricultural waste, such
as crop silage and livestock manure; industrial waste from coal mining, lumber mills, or
other facilities; and even the gases that are naturally produced within landfills. Advanced
waste-to-energy technologies can be used to produce biogas (methane and carbon dioxide),
syngas (hydrogen and carbon monoxide), liquid biofuels (ethanol and biodiesel), or pure
hydrogen; these fuels can then be converted into electricity.

Waste generation rates are affected by socio-economic development, degree of

industrialization, and climate. Generally, the greater the economic prosperity and the
higher percentage of urban population, the greater is the amount of solid waste produced.
Reduction in the volume and mass of solid waste is a crucial issue especially in the light of
limited availability of final disposal sites in many parts of the world. Millions of tonnes of
waste are generated each year with the vast majority disposed of in open fields or burnt
wantonly.

The main categories of waste-to-energy technologies are physical technologies, which

process waste to make it more useful as fuel; thermal technologies, which can yield heat,
fuel oil, or syngas from both organic and inorganic wastes; and biological technologies, in
which bacterial fermentation is used to digest organic wastes to yield fuel. Waste-to-energy
technologies can address a host of environmental issues, such as land use and pollution
from landfills, and increasing reliance on fossil fuels.

Waste-to-energy conversion reduces greenhouse gas emissions in two ways. Electricity is

generated which reduces the dependence on electrical production from power plants based
on fossil fuels. The greenhouse gas emissions are significantly reduced by preventing
methane emissions from landfills. Moreover, waste-to-energy plants are highly efficient in
harnessing the untapped sources of energy from a variety of wastes.

Importance of Waste-to-Energy Systems

Waste-to-energy systems can play a dual role in greenhouse gas mitigation related to the
objectives of the UNFCCC, i.e. as an energy source to substitute for fossil fuels and as a
carbon store. Modern waste-to-energy plants offer significant, cost-effective and perpetual
opportunities toward meeting emission reduction targets while providing additional
ancillary benefits. Moreover, via the sustainable use of the accumulated carbon, waste-to-
energy has the potential for resolving some of the critical issues surrounding long-term
maintenance of biotic carbon stocks.

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Additional benefits offered are employment creation in rural areas, reduction of a country’s
dependence on imported energy carriers (and the related improvement of the balance of
trade), better waste control, and potentially benign effects with regard to biodiversity,
desertification, recreational value, etc. In summary, waste-to-energy can significantly
contribute to sustainable development in both developed and less developed countries,
provided that all issues related to its practical exploitation are carefully considered.

Waste-to-Energy Conversion Pathways

Wastes can be transformed into clean energy and/or fuels by a variety of technologies,
ranging from conventional combustion process to state-of-the-art thermal
depolymerization technology. Besides recovery of substantial energy, these technologies
can lead to a substantial reduction in the overall waste quantities requiring final disposal,
which can be better managed for safe disposal in a controlled manner while meeting the
pollution control standards.

Waste-to-energy technology is inherently flexible. The variety of technological options

available means that it can be applied at a small, localized scale primarily for heat, or it can
be used in much larger base-load power generation capacity whilst also producing heat.
Waste-to-energy conversion can thus be tailored to rural or urban environments, and
utilized in domestic, commercial or industrial applications.

A host of technologies are available for realizing the potential of waste as an energy source,
ranging from very simple systems for disposing of dry waste to more complex technologies
capable of dealing with large amounts of industrial waste.

Biochemical Conversion
The biochemical conversion processes, which include anaerobic digestion and
fermentation, are preferred for wastes having high percentage of organic biodegradable
matter and high moisture content. Anaerobic digestion is a reliable technology for the
treatment of wet, organic waste. Organic waste from various sources is composted in highly
controlled, oxygen-free conditions, resulting in the production of biogas which can be used
to produce both electricity and heat. Anaerobic digestion also results in a dry residue called
digestate which can be used as a soil conditioner. Alcohol fermentation is the
transformation of organic fraction of biomass to ethanol by a series of biochemical
reactions using specialized microorganisms. It finds a good deal of application in the
transformation of woody biomass into cellulosic ethanol.

Thermochemical Conversion
Thermochemical conversion systems consist of primary conversion technologies which
convert the waste into heat or gaseous and liquid products, together with secondary
conversion technologies which convert these products into the more useful forms of energy,
heat and electricity. The three principal methods of thermo-chemical conversion
corresponding to each of these energy carriers are: combustion in excess air, gasification in
reduced air, and pyrolysis in the absence of air.

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Gasification of wastes takes place in a restricted supply of oxygen and occurs through initial
devolatilization of the biomass, combustion of the volatile material and char, and further
reduction to produce a fuel gas rich in carbon monoxide and hydrogen. This combustible
gas has a lower calorific value than natural gas but can still be used as fuel for boilers, for
engines, and potentially for combustion turbines after cleaning the gas stream of tars and
particulates.

Pyrolysis enables wastes to be converted to a combination of solid char, gas and a liquid
bio-oil. Using fast pyrolysis, bio-oil yield can be as high as 80 percent of the product on a
dry fuel basis. Bio-oil can act as a liquid fuel or as a feedstock for chemical production.

Energy Carriers in Waste-to-Energy Systems

Energy carriers produced during primary conversion have to be converted into a useful
form of energy (space heating, hot water, electricity or process steam) in the secondary
conversion stage. There are a host of secondary energy conversion technologies for
generating electricity at a wide range of scales:
• Internal combustion engines
• Steam turbines
• Steam engines
• Co-firing with fossil fuel
• Stirling engines
• Indirectly fired gas turbines
• Directly fired pressurized gas turbines
• Micro-turbines
• Fuel cells
• Advanced power cycle technologies

Role of Waste-to-Energy in Waste Management

Waste-to-energy provides the fourth ‘R’ in a comprehensive solid waste management
program: reduction, reuse, recycling, and energy recovery. The benefits of full-scale
implementation of energy recovery as a final step in waste management are evident:
• Conservation of natural resources and fossil fuels
• Drastic landfill reduction
• Lower greenhouse emissions

The need for an integrated solid waste management strategy in a city, state, or country
becomes more evident as that region’s economy grows and the standard of living improves.
With increases in consumption, the amount of waste generated also increases. This creates
stresses on the land used for disposal, can lead to environmental pollution, and can be
detrimental to public health if the waste is not disposed properly.

From an integrated solid waste management standpoint, waste-to-energy can be an

effective solution to India’s waste crisis for the following reasons:
• Waste-to-energy is a renewable technology. It prevents the emission of greenhouse
gases from waste dumps, agricultural farms etc, displaces fossil fuels used for power

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generation by creating energy from waste, and is an environmentally superior form of
waste disposal as compared to landfills and incineration.
• Economic growth increases the amount of goods that are consumed, thus increasing
the amount of waste generated. A strategy of whether this waste will be recycled or
used for energy generation needs to be developed, keeping in mind economic, social,
and environmental costs and benefits.
• Waste-to-energy provides an effective way to reduce the volume of waste by
approximately 90% and thereby lower the space needed for landfills.
• The consumption of plastics is expected to increase sharply in the future. To the extent
possible, plastics should be recycled; however, not all forms of plastic are suitable for
recycling. In this case, waste-to-energy is preferable to landfills since plastics have a
high heating value.

Modem waste-to-energy plants have been well analyzed for environmental impact. They are
equipped with the latest combustion and pollution control technologies to keep emission
and toxin levels not only below those that increase risks to public health, but below those
detectable by the most sensitive tests in use. Waste combustion provides integrated
solutions to the problems of the modem era – by recovering otherwise lost energy and
metals, thereby reducing use of precious natural resources; by cutting down emissions of
greenhouse gases; and by both saving valuable land that would otherwise be destined to
become landfill and recovering land once sacrificed to the products of consumerism.

Conclusions
Waste-to-energy plants offer two important benefits – environmentally safe waste
management and disposal, as well as the generation of clean electric power. Waste-to-
energy facilities produce clean, renewable energy through thermochemical, biochemical
and physicochemical methods. The growing use of waste-to-energy as a method to dispose
solid and liquid wastes and to generate power has greatly reduced environmental impacts
of municipal solid waste management, including emissions of greenhouse gases.

Waste-to-energy is not only a solution to reduce the volume of waste that is and provide a
supplemental energy source, but also yields a number of social benefits that cannot easily
be quantified. As the environmental issues concerning waste management have evolved,
and the concept of a waste hierarchy has developed, it has become clear that an increasingly
important reason to incorporate an energy-from-waste component within an integrated
waste strategy is for the recovery of energy from the residual waste stream.

An environmentally sound and techno-economically viable methodology to treat waste is

highly crucial for the sustainability of modern societies. A transition from conventional
energy systems to one based on renewable resources is necessary to meet the ever-
increasing demand for energy and to address environmental concerns.

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Educated in Chemical Engineering from Aligarh Muslim University,
Salman Zafar is a Renewable Energy Advisor with expertise in
biomass energy, waste-to-energy processes, solid waste
management and sustainable energy systems. Apart from
managing his advisory firm BioEnergy Consult, he has been
actively collaborating on sustainable development around the
world. He writes actively in journals, magazines, newsletters,
websites and blogs on renewable energy and waste management.

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