ENV-617: WASTE-BASED BIOREFINERIES IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES: AN IMPERATIVE NEED OF TIME

The current world population of 7.2 billion is projected to reach up to 8.2 billion in 2025 with current annual growth rate of 1%. The Asia, Middle East, Africa and Latin America are the places, where most of this growth will occur due to rapidly growing industries and urbanization. As a consequence, the generation rate of municipal solid waste (MSW) will increase from 1.2 to 1.5 kg per capita per day in next 15 years. Globally, around 2.4 billion tons of MSW is generated every year that will reach up to 2.6 billion tons by 2025. Similarly, the energy demand will increase significantly in developing countries, especially in Asia with an increase of 46-58% at annual rate of 3.7% till 2025. Fossil fuels are the most relied source at the moment to meet the world’s energy demands. The intensive and solely utilization of fossil resources are not only depleting our natural reserves but also causing global climate change. The municipal waste can be a cheap and valuable source of renewable energy, recycled materials, value-added products (VAP) and revenue, if properly and wisely managed. The possibilities for converting waste-to-energy (WTE) are plentiful and can include a wide range of waste sources, conversion technologies, and infrastructure and end-use applications. Several WTE technologies such as pyrolysis, anaerobic digestion (AD), incineration, transesterification, gasification, refused derived fuel (RDF) and plasma arc gasification are being utilized to generate energy and VAP in the form of electricity, transportation fuels, heat, fertilizer, animal feed, and useful materials and chemicals. However, there are certain limitations with each WTE technology, as an individual technology cannot achieve zero waste concept and competes with other renewable-energy sources like wind, solar, and geothermal. A conceptual and technological solution to these limitations is to integrate appropriate WTE technologies based on the country/or region specific waste characterization and available infrastructure, labor skill requirements, and end-use applications under a biorefinery concept. Such waste-based biorefinery should integrate several WTE technologies to produce multiple fuels and VAP from different waste sources, including agriculture, forestry, industry and municipal waste. This paper aims to assess the value of waste-based biorefinery in developing countries as a solution to waste-related environmental and human health problems with additional bonus of renewable energy and VAP