Solid Waste Management in Developing Countries through Plasma Arc Gasification- An Alternative Approach

Solid Waste management (SWM) is very acute and intricate problem in developing economies like India. Progressing states have meager budget for waste management and major portion of which goes to collection and transportation rather than its treatment .Over a period of time waste management become a serious problem in developing countries. Mountains of hazardous waste have been created on the outskirts of mega cities. These mountains create serious threats to both flora and fauna. Various methods like land filling, incineration and composting have been used for waste management, but none of them fully satisfy the growing need of waste management in major cities. In this work we have compared various methods of Waste management and suggested comparatively better method of plasma arc gasification, in which pyrolysis of solid waste takes place at very high temperature thus ensuring syngases as the output of gasifier. The method not only treats all types of waste, but also produces many useful byproducts and electricity. The set-up ensures closed loop cycle thereby reducing pollution and suits the needs of developing countries and can be potential SWM method in the coming future.