Membres

Eco-Square | The debated Waste-to Energy (WtE or incineration) solution

As this industrial solution is gaining momentum in many countries (there are more than 4000 facilities around the world) the debate about whether this is a good or bad solution for our environment issue is nurturing many side chats and conferences worldwide.

In our Region, the GCC, the number of large WtE projects are increasing. The UAE have launched the largest in the world in Dubai (2023); Sharjah (operating) and Abudhabi (recently awarded) have their own too, and KSA is also putting few in the pipeline. Qatar is looking into it and Oman considering it for the mid-term

Whether we look at it on the Energy production side or the Waste reduction side, there are definitely obvious positive outcomes. The thermal combustion of MSW (Municipal Solid Waste) helps reduce the volume by around 90% of its original size. It also helps reduce the risk of volatile and highly toxic material to end up in the natural environment (the flue gases usually consist of HChloride, HFluoride, Sulfur Dioxide (SO2) as well as some other contaminants such as Hg, NO2 (nitrogen dioxide).

For cold countries, the production of heat from the combustion will be used to create steam and thus electricity (some facilities can generate up to 700KWh per ton of MSW). WtE is an effective process that participate significantly to the reduction of CO2 emissions (by avoiding methane-CH4 and CO2 from landfill related operations, like transport, leakage, biological digestion….). It is estimated that every ton of burned waste is equivalent to reduce the emission of 1 ton of CO2.

However, some, from the opposing side, consider that first the entry cost is too high for municipalities to bare and it needs subsidies from the government to be profitable (gate fees for the waste). Second, the residues that are produced during such process (bottom ash -20%, left-over from the combustion process, and fly ash -5% present in the gaseous output) are of high concern although today there are viable solutions to re-use them (in road binders for instance). The proximity of community is also a major concern and not always accepted although it makes sense sometimes to heat the cities close-by and reduce fossil fuel usage for district heating.

Knowing that the current volume of MSW generated in the UAE are in the range of 5.6Mtons/year, whether we are pro or against it, the WtE will still flourish as long as we thrive to find a better solution to the waste problem (better recycling flows, reduced consumption ….). It is just one brick in the Energy Transition problem solving.