Energy potential of municipal solid waste incineration in urban areas of China.

This study aims to evaluate the energy potential of municipal solid waste (MSW) incineration in Chinese cities from 1996 to 2020. In China, with improving the standard of living recently, the extreme increase of the municipal solid waste generation (MSWG) and the energy consumption have become important problems. To diminish these problems, MSW incineration, one of the methods of disposing waste, was taken. The study mainly paid attention on the energy issue. At the beginning of the study, the data of GDP per capita and the electricity consumption in China were collected and calculated. However, the lack of data on the MSWG in China was the key problem in the study. The trend of the MSWG in China was assumed to be similar to the general tendency. Through using the data from World Bank and Hoornweg (2000), a figure of the general trend of MSWG was made. By combining the global trend and the GDP per capita, MSWG in China was obtained. Finally, the potential contribution of MSW incineration to energy consumption is calculated by comparing the electricity generation per capita from MSW with the electricity consumption per capita. As a conclusion, around 5% contribution of the electricity generation of MSW incineration to the electricity consumption is not outstanding. However, as a by-product the contribution of MSW incineration to reduce MSW is about 70%. In other words, about 70% of landfilled waste can possibly be incinerated for energy.