Techno-economic analysis of a grid-connected waste to energy gasification plant: a case study

Abstract

With population growth around the world, municipal waste disposal and continued energy demand becomes some of the major challenges to deal with. In order to address these, an approach is required for an optimal waste management system that offers the population benefit with a lower environmental impact. This study evaluates the technical-economic and environmental impact analysis of a grid-connected waste to energy (WtE) plant to power a Univerisiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) community. The energy recovery potential of the waste stream was assessed using the life cycle assessment (LCA) method with GaBi™ software (version 4). A technical, economic and environmental analysis was then carried out for the grid-connected WtE system using HOMERPro software with gasification conversion technology. The cash flow analysis was based on levelized costs of energy (LCOE) and total net present value (NPV). The results gave an NPV for the system at USD 1.11 × 107, with most of the effects resulting from the grid operating costs and the LCOE of USD 0.43/kWh compared to the grid unit price of USD 0.7/kWh which corresponds to a saving of $ 0.27/kWh in energy purchase. From an environmental point of view, the results showed a significant reduction in carbon dioxide emissions from around 2,000 tons per year to around 400 tons per year. With regard to the amount of waste sent to landfills, the results show a significant improvement from 142,605.5 kg/year to 0.13 kg/year.