Waste-to-Energy: Green solutions for Emerging Markets
Waste-to-Energy (WTE) or energy-from-waste is the process of generating energy in the form of electricity and/or heat from the incineration of waste. In the U.S., some cities primarily in the northeastern and mid-Atlantic, burn part of their municipal solid wastes. Hemmed in by major population centers, landfill space in these areas is at a premium, so burning wastes to reduce their volume and weight makes sense. Combustion reduces the volume of material by about 90 percent and its weight by 75 percent. The heat generated by burning wastes has other uses, as well, as it can be used directly for heating, to produce steam or to generate electricity.
What is Waste-to-Energy?
Waste to energy is the process of generating power in form of electricity and heat from the waste. These energy add high value by reducing the wastage from all over the world and giving equivalent energy like the energy produced from coal and other renewable sources. The products obtained from these process are methane, methanol, ethanol, or synthetic fuel. The main industry that uses waste to energy is power & energy industry and thermal industry.
Click to Download PDF Copy of an Ultimate Guide to Waste-to-Energy
How to Produce Energy from Waste?
‘Incineration’ is the most common and popular method for waste to energy generation. Incineration is also a very highly debated technology, due to the concerns it raises regarding safety and environmental impact. In simple terms, it stands for a type of waste treatment process, where the organics from the waste collected are burnt at high temperatures.
Waste treatments that are conducted involving high temperatures are called Thermal Treatment. The heat generated from this thermal temperature is then used to create energy.
Several countries in the world, especially in Europe, are experimenting with Incineration as an alternate means of energy production; Sweden, Germany and Luxembourg, to name a few.