Frank Kreith

Waste-to-energy combustion is an important technology for municipal solid waste management. But its growth has recently slowed while communities wrestle with issues that range from flow control to impact on recycling to cost effectiveness, and to political acceptability. Nevertheless, waste-to-energy combustion can be an important factor in an overall fully integrated solid waste management strategy. The traditional term incineration has acquired a bad connotation in the mind of the public due to the poor operation of some waste combustors in the past. Therefore, the term waste-to-energy combustion is now widely used in its place. The term incineration, as used in this chapter, refers to the modern practice of incineration of waste that cannot be recycled economically. The technology offers great opportunities for reducing the volume of waste to be landfilled, as well as for generating heat and power. Raw solid waste has a heating value between 4000 and 7000 Btu/lbm compared to coal, which releases about 10,000 Btu/lbm. Hence, a large amount of heat can be released by burning municipal waste, and that heat can be used to generate electric power. It has been estimated that waste-to-energy facilities could supply as much as 2 percent of the electrical power needed in this country. But, more important, incineration reduces the volume of waste dramatically, up to tenfold. Thus, incineration can be attractive for large metropolitan areas where landfills are a long distance from the population center.

The major constraints on waste-to-energy combustion facilities are their cost,...