Proximate analysis of waste-to-energy potential of municipal solid waste for sustainable renewable energy generation

Over-dependence on virgin resources has been a major topic of social and political debates as the world's population and urbanization continue to rise. The high rate of rural-urban migration and changes in stan-dard of living habits give rise to rapid economic activities that have an enormous impact on the gradual increase in waste generation and continued demand for electricity in urban centres. The solutions to these concerns can be achieved through efficient waste management options by waste resource utiliza-tion for energy and nutrient recovery and reduced solid waste pollution footprint. This research exam-ined the viability of present and projected municipal solid waste streams to generate green energy through field surveys by physical characterization of the waste composition, projected waste quantity based on available population and waste data for the period 2000 - 2014, modelled methane gas gener-ated by IPCC method, and the energy value was determined respectively. The findings indicated a high organic content of 54.1% of MSW and a per capita waste generation rate of 0.49-0.57 kg/capita/day. The waste was projected to increase from 353717.41 to 2,223497 tonnes between 2014 and 2035 at a population growth rate of 9.15%. This accounted for methane gas generated estimated to be 9.85Gg/year with an energy value of 15 MW/day in 2014 and projected to increase to 33.4 MW/day by 2035. The energy value estimated represented an increase from 6.14% to 212.74% of the allocated power supply from the national grid within the projected period. However, it is worth noting that, there are some lim-itations associated with the research due in part to inadequate field data which was supplemented by default model values as recommended by IPCC, although within an acceptable uncertainty band of result sensitivity. Therefore, the WTE management option can serve as a pathway for green energy integration for sustainable development.(c) 2023 THE AUTHORS. Published by Elsevier BV on behalf of Faculty of Engineering, Ain Shams University. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by-nc-nd/4.0/).