Characteristics of MSW and heat energy recovery between residential and commercial areas in Seoul

This paper analyzes the amount and characteristics of municipal solid waste (MSW) according to the inhabitant density of population and the business concentration in 25 districts in Seoul. Further, the heat energy recovery and avoided CO2 emissions of four incineration plants located in residential and commercial areas in Seoul are examined. The amount of residential waste per capita tended to increase as the density of inhabitants decreased. The amount of commercial waste per capita tended to increase as the business concentration increased. The examination of the heat energy recovery characteristics indicated that the four incineration plants produced heat energy that depended on residential or commercial areas based on population and business. The most important result regarding avoided CO2 emissions was that commercial areas with many office-type businesses had the most effective CO2 emission savings by combusting 1 kg of waste. Assuming the full-scale operation of the four incineration plants, the amount of saved CO2 emissions per year was 444 Gg CO2 and 57,006 households in Seoul can be provided with heat energy equivalent to 542,711 Nm3 of LNG.