Energy, Economic, and Environmental Analysis of Waste-to-Energy Technologies for Municipal Solid Waste Treatment: A Case Study of Surat, India

In this study, the energy, economic, and environmental (3E) analysis on two waste-to-energy (WtE) technologies, for example, anaerobic digestion (AD) and incineration, for the treatment of municipal solid waste in Surat (Gujarat, India) was conducted. For energy criteria, the potential for energy recovery from municipal solid wastes (MSW) through AD and incineration was considered. The economic analysis that was carried out considered preprocessing, transportation, land, capital investment, and operational and maintenance costs that were incurred. The revenue that was generated by selling the electricity and compost was considered along with the recycling value of the paper waste. For environmental analysis, the global warming and acidification potentials (APs) were considered from the emissions that were produced during the treatment, transport, and disposal along with the displaced emissions. The results indicated that the average daily solid waste generation from Surat was 0.33 kg/person and the average total solid waste generation was 2080 t/day. Organic waste was the largest fraction (35.6%) followed by inert waste (13.5%), construction and demolition waste (12.4%), and recyclable waste, such as glass, rubber, and metal (11.2%). AD had less energy generation potential (9.89 MW) compared with incineration (16.99 MW). From an economic perspective, incineration had a higher profit (INR 1.48 million/day) than AD (INR 1.38 million/day). The environmental analysis showed that incineration had greater potential to reduce global warming and acidification compared with AD. The 3E analysis revealed that incineration was the superior technology choice.