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2017 July 12

Energy recovery from Waste to be a major sector in future

The World Bioenergy Association (WBA) is pleased to publish our factsheet on Energy Recovery from Waste (EfW). Waste is a major problem in every nation around the world. Moreover, with increasing migration of population from rural to urban areas, the challenge of managing municipal solid waste will be immense in the coming years. In this regard, WBA believes that energy recovery from waste will be a major sector in the future. This factsheet is the 11th in a series of factsheets covering a wide range of bioenergy topics published by WBA.

In the current factsheet, WBA promotes that managing of waste should follow the hierarchy structure - reduce, reuse, recycle and recovery with the last option of disposal. Efficient utilization of resources is the first step followed by energy recovery. Advantages of using an energy recovery from waste system are:

  • It reduces the volume of waste upto 96%.
  • Production of heat and electricity along with solid waste management.
  • Better sanitation, lower risk of contamination and diseases.
  • WtE facilities are designed for high emission control
  • It has climate change impact as producing energy from waste avoids potential emissions from landfilling         

There are already various technologies and pathways existing in the conversion of waste to energy including incineration, gasification, pyrolysis, anaerobic digestion etc. Strict emission rules ensure that the waste is effectively utilized with lower impacts on the environment.

The energy recovery from waste sector faces certain key challenges. The cost of conversion and feedstock logistics are some of the challenges which have to be addressed. The challenges can be addressed via strong policies preventing dumping and incentivizing recycling and energy recovery. Proper information dissemination among the general public is another way of promoting the increasing use of the technology. Good data on global waste production and utilization is also another key challenge to be addressed.

WBA believes that energy recovery from waste will be a major sector in the future enabling cities and regions to be energy secure, reduce dependency on fossil fuels and efficient utilization of resources.

Download the factsheet here: Link

Download the press release here: Link (Doc), Link (Pdf)

For more information, please contact:

World Bioenergy Association (info@worldbioenergy.org)