Cost-benefit analysis of GHG emission reduction in waste to energy projects of China under clean development mechanism

Energy recovery is widely considered an important part of hierarchy of waste management. Previously, researchers have primarily focused on cost-effectiveness analysis of solid waste management, ignoring the global warming potential (GWP) impacts. By integrating greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and the cost-benefit analysis, we analyzed the cost-benefit of GHG emissions for two waste to energy (WtE) methods: incineration with combined heat and power (ICHP) which produces electricity and heat, and landfill disposal with landfill gas utilization (LGU). We calculated both costs and benefits per ton certified GHG emission reductions (CER) for 20 clean development mechanism (CDM) projects with WtE technology in typical northern and southern cities in China. Furthermore, benefits were analyzed under two different scenarios: benefit only from recovery energy revenues; benefit from recovery energy revenues plus gate fee revenues. The results show that: (1) ICHP projects are beneficial from the GHG reduction standpoint; (2) The ratio of CER revenues to benefit is very high during 2008-2011. However, the decrease of CER price in CDM projects causes the disposal gate fee from local government to become more and more important for these two WtE technologies, especially for LGU. However, with or without the CDM, there is still a huge GHG reduction potential in solid waste management in China. Policies should be developed to facilitate and encourage WtE, and the selection of WtE method depends on geographical region and economics.