Evaluation of HUHA 2 WtE Plant in the District Heating Supply of Budapest

Urban waste management is an important task of every major city. However, solutions can be very different and international regulations show the way to the most environmentally friendly solution. As it is impossible to reduce municipal solid waste production to zero with reuse, calorific valorisation of urban waste provides the next possible alternative. The economic evaluation of a second waste to energy plant is presented in this paper which would reduce the waste disposal of the Hungarian capital as currently less than 2/3 of the 680000-700000 t/a MSW is recycled or used for energetic purposes with one plant operating. The HUHA 2 plant would provide partially renewable fuel for the district heating system of Budapest and reduce energy supply dependency of the currently heavily natural gas based system. As for all energy(r)elated investments, a thorough economic investigation has to be carried out to facilitate the decision-making. In the current study the feasibility of HUHA 2 is investigated reflecting annuity, fix and operational costs, CO2 quota and the specific costs of heat and electricity generation. The thermal output connection has been evaluated for various supply zone alternatives.