Consideration of high-efficient Waste-to-Energy with district energy for sustainable solid waste management in Korea

The global hierarchy of sustainable solid waste management is ranked with source reduction, reuse, recycle, waste-to-energy, and landfill. After adoption of the Paris Agreement, the main issue in energy usage is to reduce the greenhouse gas (GHG) emission, universally. In this context, the necessity of renewable energies was increased. However unpredictable fall in oil prices brings about the price drop of recyclables and threatens the motive of recycling activities and the frame of solid waste management hierarchy as well. In order to react properly on in the energy and waste management sectors, the current situation of Waste-to-Energy(WtE) and District Heating and Cooling (DHC) in Korea were investigated compared with the EU and considered the suggestions for improvement of WtE plants and the synergy between WtE and DHC network.As the mixed residual waste to be treated may be increased, WtE is becoming weightier for the climate change and sustainable society. Since the late 1990s, there had established directives in terms of reducing final disposal and increasing the usage of sustainable energy gained from many sources, especially from WtE as a district energy. Including Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden which have introduced landfill bans and promoted the WtE and renewable energy usage. As a result, the WtE technology aiming at maximizing energy recovery is well developed and simultaneously the DHC system connected with WtE plant is promoted. Thus the enhancement for the current WtE system and for the synergies with district energy, the changes in policy and techniques are required. In technical view, treatment of raw Municipal Solid Waste MSW through bio-drying MBT(Mechanical Biological Treatment) will reduce the final disposal and further produce high calorific value of Solid Recovered Fuel (SRF) by removing moisture. Burning SRF will increase the power generation efficiencies rather introducing raw MSW. Additionally, high-efficient WtE technology which applied widely through Japan, Denmark and the Netherlands also enhance the total energy recovery for securing the district energy. Eventually, combined technology between bio-drying MBT with high-efficient WtE and DHC can reduce the GHG emission and achieve the sustainable development goals.