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Bioresource Technology
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/biortech
Review
State Key Laboratory of Organic Geochemistry, Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510640, PR China
Education Program for Gifted Youth, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94025, USA
a r t i c l e
i n f o
Article history:
Received 19 June 2009
Received in revised form 6 January 2010
Accepted 12 January 2010
Keywords:
Municipal solid waste
Waste-to-energy
Incineration
Renewable energy
Greenhouse gas reduction
a b s t r a c t
With rapid economic growth and massive urbanization, China faces the problem of municipal solid waste
(MSW) disposal and the pressing need for development of alternative energy. Waste-to-energy (WTE)
incineration, which recovers energy from discarded MSW and produces electricity and/or steam for heating, is recognized as a renewable source of energy and is playing an increasingly important role in MSW
management in China. This article provides an overview of the WTE industry, discusses the major challenges in expanding WTE incineration in China, namely, high capital and operational costs, equipment
corrosion, air pollutant emissions, and y ash disposal. A perspective on MSW as a renewable energy
source in China is also presented. Currently, only approximately 13% of MSW generated in China is disposed in WTE facilities. With the signicant benets of environmental quality, the reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and government policies and nancial incentives as a renewable energy
source, WTE incineration industry is expected to experience signicant growth in the coming decade
and make greater contribution to supplying renewable energy in China.
2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
In the traditional sense, renewable sources of energy are those
that can be replenished by nature, such as hydropower, wind
power, solar power, and biomass. Municipal solid waste (MSW) refers to the materials discarded in urban areas, including predominantly household waste with sometimes the addition of
commercial wastes, collected and disposed by the municipalities.
MSW contains a signicant fraction of paper, food waste, wood
and yard trimmings, cotton, and leather, and is a source of biomass.
Materials derived from fossil fuels, such as plastics, rubber, and
fabrics, are also found in MSW. The U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency considers MSW a renewable energy resource because the
waste would otherwise be sent to landlls (U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency, 2006a). The U.S. Department of Energy includes
MSW in renewable energy only to the extent that the energy content of the MSW source stream is biogenic (Energy Information
Administration, 2007). The non-renewable portion of MSW has to
be either separated or accepted as part of the fuel (Themelis and
Millrath, 2004), and practically all the wastes in MSW after material recovery and recycling are treated as renewable.
Waste-to-energy (WTE) processes recover the energy from the
waste through either direct combustion (e.g., incineration, pyrolysis, and gasication) or production of combustible fuels in the
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +86 20 8529 0175; fax: +86 20 8529 0706.
E-mail address: hefac@umich.edu (H. Cheng).
0960-8524/$ - see front matter 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.biortech.2010.01.040
forms of methane, hydrogen, and other synthetic fuels (e.g., anaerobic digestion, mechanical biological treatment, and refuse-derived fuel). Incineration and gasication are the two primary
WTE technologies that have been used successfully throughout
the world. It is estimated that about 130 million tonnes of MSW
are combusted annually in over 600 WTE facilities worldwide, producing electricity and steam for district heating and recovered
metals for recycling (Themelis, 2003). WTE incineration has long
been accepted as a solid waste management option, complementing landlling and composting (American Society of Mechanical
Engineers, 2008; Denison, 1996; Themelis, 2003; United Nations
Environment Programme, 1996). The advantages and limitations
of the major MSW disposal technology options, landlling, composting, and incineration, are compared in Table 1. Incineration
of MSW in WTE facilities prevents the possible aqueous and gaseous pollution associated with landlling and provides a source
of reliable, renewable energy. As a proven, environmentally sound
technology, WTE has been used extensively in Europe and developed countries in Asia such as Japan and Singapore (American Society of Mechanical Engineers, 2008).
The demand for sustainable urban growth in China is unprecedented: 300 million people will move from the countryside into
cities (1820 million people/year), necessitating the building of
over 400 new cities in the next two decades (Brookins, 2007;
Cheng and Hu, 2010; Hart and Milstein, 1999; United Nations,
2008; United Nations Population Fund, 2007). It is expected that
70% of Chinas population, or approximately 1.0 billion people, will
3817
Table 1
Comparison of the major MSW management technology options: landlling, composting, and incineration.
Technology
Advantages
Disadvantages
Landlling
Composting
Incineration
Cost increases signicantly with liner, leachate collection and removal system, and
stricter regulations;
Requires large area of land;
Does not achieve the objectives of reducing volume of MSW and converting MSW
into reusable resources;
May result in secondary pollution problems, including groundwater pollution, air
pollution, and soil contamination;
May serve as breeding ground for pests and diseases;
Long postclosure care obligations and unknowns exist, and sets long-term
restrictions on site land use;
Site location may be limited by the local geology and natural stability of the
underground soil;
Due to public acceptance and space limitation, landlls are often far away from the
places where waste is generated, necessitating long distance transport of the waste.
Takes up more space than some other waste management technologies;
Can be costly to implement and maintain, and has no environmental or economic
advantages compared to incineration;
Requires waste size reduction and some degree of waste separation/processing;
There are issues with public perception, such as odor and bioaerosol emissions
during the composting process, and the control of disease producing organisms,
weeds, and insects;
Quality of the fertilizer produced is low and volume is disproportionately large,
resulting in poor market demand;
Compost product may cause soil pollution by heavy metals and pathogens.
High capital and operational and maintenance costs, compared to other, nonincineration options;
Signicant operator expertise is required;
Air pollution control equipment is required to treat the ue gas, and the y ash
needs to be disposed in hazardous waste landlls;
More raw material have to be used to replace those that have been incinerated, and
it does not save energy in the long run as resources are not recycled;
May some time discourage recycling and waste reduction;
Public perception is sometimes negative, primarily with dioxins emission.
be living in urban areas by 2050 (Feiner et al., 2001; United Nations, 2008). Dealing with the increasing volume of MSW generated as a result of both the increasing urban population and the
improving life style of the people presents a daunting challenge
(Cheng et al., 2007; Cheng and Hu, 2009). At the same time, China,
which is the worlds second largest consumer of energy and the
third largest importer of oil (Energy Information Administration,
2009), also faces massive demand for energy to power its economic
growth. Discarded MSW is a viable energy source for electricity
generation in a carbon-constrained world (Kaplan et al., 2009),
thus a MSW management technology with the benets of recovering energy from the waste is a promising alternative in solving the
MSW disposal problem in China. WTE is gaining increasing popularity in China primarily for its ability to reduce the volume of
MSW that requires landlling, it also lessens the countrys dependence on fossil fuel and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This article provides an overview of the situations of MSW disposal and the
development of WTE incineration in China. The major challenges
facing the growth of WTE incineration industry are discussed and
the perspective of MSW as a renewable energy source in China is
also presented.
3818
Composting has become an unpopular choice of MSW management (dropped from 17% in 2001 to <4% in 2006), primarily because the lack of waste sorting and materials separation resulted
in compost products with low nutrient contents and elevated heavy metal levels (Yan and Wu, 2003). Meanwhile, the amount of
MSW being incinerated increased steadily, and incineration gradually became the second most important means of MSW
management.
3819
of the global anthropogenic GHG emissions (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2006). Methane emission from MSW management is estimated to be 1.873.37 Mt in China in 2004 (Gao
et al., 2007). Compared to the option of landlling, WTE can curb
the contribution of MSW on GHG emissions through avoiding the
release of methane from landlls and offsetting emissions from
fossil fuel power plants. Comparative studies of WTE and landlling have shown that WTE can reduce up to 1.3 tonnes of carbon
equivalent per ton of MSW through avoiding the release of methane from landlls and offsetting emissions from fossil fuel power
plants (American Society of Mechanical Engineers, 2008). U.S. data
indicate a net emission reduction of 0.15 ton of carbon equivalent
was achieved for every ton of MSW managed by WTE instead of
being landlled (with the national average methane recovery) in
2003 (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 2006b). By most estimates, China is now, or soon will be, the largest emitter of GHGs
globally. In the past few years, China has instituted policies to slow
its GHG emissions growth. Even though the contribution of GHG
emissions from MSW management is low (1%) (Gao et al.,
2007), WTE can be a small step towards reducing Chinas total
GHG emissions. In addition, WTE can reduce the transport of
MSW to distant landlls and the associated emissions and fuel consumption (Kaplan et al., 2009; Weitz et al., 2002).
4. Characteristics of Chinese MSW and development of WTE
MSW is a heterogeneous material and its physical composition
is dependent on socio-economic level and climatic conditions
(Qdais et al., 1997). In China the physical components of MSW typically include food waste, paper, textile, rubber, plastic, glass, metals, wood, and miscellaneous inorganic wastes (e.g., stones,
ceramics, and ashes). Systematic MSW sorting and recycling is
not implemented, although materials with resale values, such as
metals, paper, and plastics, are highly recycled by the informal
recycling sector (Cheng et al., 2007). MSW in China shows some
distinct compositional characteristics compared to those in developed countries: food waste, instead of paper, makes up the largest
fraction (50%) of MSW in China, and the moisture levels are much
higher (typically around 50% vs. 2030% in the U.S. and European
countries) (Cheng et al., 2007; Li et al., 2001; Zhang et al., 2008).
The caloric values (30006700 kJ/kg) of Chinese MSW are typically less than half of those (840017,000 kJ/kg) of the developed
countries, which are mainly composed of sorted organic wastes
(Patumsawad and Cliffe, 2002; Thipse et al., 2001). As a result,
incineration of Chinese MSW encounters a range of problems,
including difculty in ignition, unsteady and unstable combustion
ame, incomplete combustion of the waste, and increased formation of air pollutants. Supplementary fuel, which would signicantly increase the operating cost, is often necessary for
incineration of such high moisture, low energy content wastes
(Cheng et al., 2007; Cheng and Hu, 2009; Nie, 2008).
The experience from the rst modernized WTE plant (Shenzhen,
Guangdong) in China is a good example of the technology development in incinerating the unsorted MSW with high moisture levels
and low heat contents. Two 150 t/d incinerators were imported
from Japan in the late 1980s. They were operated with prolonged
drying and incineration times to adequately incinerate the local
Table 2
Summary of the types and capacities of MSW incinerators in China in 2006 (Nie, 2008; Xu and Liu, 2007).
Incinerator type
No. of plants
No. of incinerators
Stoke grate
Fluidized bed
Rotary kiln + pyrolysis
Total
25
24
14
63
69
50
32
151
46
39
5
90
20,400
16,080
3540
40,020
355
420
25
800
3820
Table 3
Comparison of the performances of stoke grate and uidized bed MSW incinerators.
Incineration
technology
Stoke grate
Fluidized bed
Pre-treatment
No pretreatment is needed.
Auxiliary fuel
Mixing during
incineration
Maintenance
Fig. 3. Examples of domestically developed MSW incineration technologies in China: (a) schematic of a grate-circulating uidized bed combustion system (Cheng et al., 2007)
and (b) illustrative diagram for the primary chamber of a novel incineration technology integrated with drying, pyrolysis, gasication, and combustion of MSW and ashes
vitrication (Liu and Liu, 2005).
3821
Table 4
Emission limits of air pollutants from MSW incineration in China, European Union, and United States.
Pollutant
Emission standard
Chinaa
80 (hourly ave.)
Smoke opacity
CO, mg/m3
SO2, mg/m3
NOX, mg/m
HCl, mg/m3
75 (hourly ave.)
Hg, mg/m3
Cd, mg/m3
Pb, mg/m3
0.2
0.1
1.6
Dioxins/furans, ng TEQ/m3
European Unionb
10 (daily ave.); 30
(half-hourly ave.)
United States
Small municipal waste
combustord
24 (3-run ave.)
0.08
0.02
0.2
13 (total mass basis)g
Notes:
a all emission limits except opacity are measured at 11% oxygen, dry basis at standard conditions (State Environmental Protection Administration of China, 2001a);
b all emission limits are measured at 10% oxygen, dry basis at standard conditions (European Union, 2000);
c the daily average limit is 200 mg/m3 for new and existing plants with more than 6 tonnes per hour capacity, and 400 mg/m3 for existing plants with no more than 6 tonnes
per hour capacity;
d for unit with an individual municipal waste combustion capacity of 250 tonnes per day or less, all emission limits except opacity are measured at 7% oxygen, dry basis at
standard conditions (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 2000);
e the limit varies by combustor technology;
f the limit is 150 ppm by volume for Class I units (located at municipal waste combustion plants with an aggregate plant combustion capacity more than 250 tonnes per day
of MSW) or 500 ppm by volume for Class II units (located at municipal waste combustion plants with an aggregate plant combustion capacity no more than 250 tons per day
of MSW);
g dioxins/furans on total mass basis measured as tetra- through octachlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans. Not toxic equivalent (TEQ) value;
h for unit with an individual municipal waste combustion capacity of greater than 250 tonnes per day, all emission limits except opacity are measured at 7% oxygen, dry
basis at standard conditions (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 2006c);
i the limit varies by combustor technology;
j the limit varies by combustor type for existing unit, while for new unit it is 180 ppm by volume in the rst year of operation and 150 ppm by volume after rst year of
operation;
k the limit is 30 ng/m3 for non-electrostatic precipitator (ESP) equipped unit or 35 ng/m3 for ESP-equipped unit.
3822
are generally less stringent than those in Europe and the U.S. (Table 4). Concentrations of dioxins emitted from MSW incinerators
under operation in China are generally in compliance with the national standard of 1.0 ng-TEQ/Nm3, and can even meet the Eurofor
large-scale
MSW
pean
standard
(0.1 ng-TEQ/Nm3)
incinerators adopting the best available air pollution control technologies (Nie, 2008; Xu et al., 2009). Nonetheless, it is necessary for
WTE facilities to continue improve the incinerators and ue gas
treatment systems to further reduce their air pollutant emissions.
For better protection of public health, China should impose tighter
limits on emissions of dioxins and other air pollutants from incineration facilities (towards the European and U.S. standards), which
is expected to lead to a wave of development and implementation
of new air pollution control technologies.
5.4. Fly ash management
Management of y ash from MSW incineration has not received
adequate attention in China, while improper disposal can potentially cause secondary environmental pollution from the y ash.
Despite the signicant waste volume reduction, considerable
amount of solid residues (i.e., bottom ash, y ash, and air pollution
control residue) are generated at different points in the process of
MSW incineration. After appropriate stabilization treatment, the
bottom ash is often used as a construction material. In contrast,
y ash is a hazardous waste due to the enrichment of dioxins
and heavy metals, and must be disposed accordingly (Li et al.,
2004; Yan et al., 2006). Although y ash is required to be disposed
of in hazardous waste landlls (State Environmental Protection
Administration of China, 2001a), only a few cities in China have
such special landlls in service or under construction with most
of them rejecting y ash due to its large volume (Nie, 2008).
MSW incineration currently produces approximately 200,000 tonnes of y ash each year, most of which is dumped in open pits or
Fig. 4. Distribution and the status (data of 2007) of MSW incineration facilities outlined in the 11th ve-year plan period (20062010) in China.
6. Conclusion
WTE solves the problem of MSW disposal while recovering the
energy from the waste materials, and the pollutant emissions can
be controlled to low levels. With the signicant benets of environmental quality and reduction of GHG emissions, MSW is
increasingly accepted as a clean source of energy. Government polices and regulations, nancial incentives, new technologies, and
improved operations will strengthen the position of WTE in the
renewable energy market in China. Research and technology development focusing on corrosion phenomena, ue gas control, y ash
management and benecial reuse of residues will further drive the
growth of WTE industry. WTE incineration is expected to make
increasingly greater contribution to supplying renewable energy
in China, while helping solving the countrys MSW management
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