Clean energy conversion from municipal solid waste and climate change mitigation in Thailand: Waste management and thermodynamic evaluation

Enhanced energy security and renewable energy development are currently high on the public agenda in Southeast Asia, which features large populations and expansive economies. Biomass and Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) have widely been accepted as important locally-available renewable energy sources and represent one of the largest renewable energy sources worldwide. This article presents an evaluation of the potential of MSW incineration for climate change mitigation and promotion of biomass-based electricity production in a more sustainable direction in Thailand. The energy recovery potential of MSW is analyzed by investigating various types of incineration technologies. Both conventional technologies and more advanced hybrid dual-fuel cycles (which combine MSW and natural gas fuels) are considered in analyses covering cycle performance and CO2 emissions. Results show that MSW incineration has the ability to lessen environmental impact associated with waste disposal, and it can contribute positively towards expanding biomass-based energy production in Thailand. Hybrid cycles can be proposed to improve system performance and overall electrical efficiency of conventional incineration. The hybrid cycle featuring parallel interconnection is somewhat more attractive in terms of efficiency improvement: electrical efficiency increases by 4% and CO2 emission levels are reduced by 5–10% as compared to the reference incineration case. The reduction of greenhouse gas emissions is even more attractive when methane gas emitted fro m existing landfill sites is to be compared.

► Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) management and MSW incineration with energy recovery. ► Hybrid cycles are proposed to improve system performance and electrical efficiency. ► Electrical efficiency of hybrid cycle increases by 4% and CO2 emissions reduce 5–10%. ► Electricity production from MSW incineration can lead to a reduction of methane.