Economical and environmental impact of waste-to-energy (WTE) alternatives for waste incineration, landfill and anaerobic digestion

This paper aims to evaluate the economical and environmental impact of waste incineration, landfill gas recovery system (LFGRS), and anaerobic digestion (AD) for municipal solid waste (MSW) management in Malaysia and subsequently assess the potential of each technology for energy uses and carbon reduction. An existing landfill, Taman Beringin, in Malaysia is selected as the case study, which is one of the largest national sites for waste management. The results present that incineration is the most economical profitable and climate-friendly WTE alternative as compared to an conventional landfill. With the production of 1430 MWh/d of heat and 480 MWh/d of electricity from 1000 t/d of MSW input, waste incineration is able to reach 287% of profit increment or 450 TUSD/d and 2250 tCO(2)/d of carbon avoidance by fossil fuel replacement as compared to baseline. (C) 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.