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Energy-economics and environmental prospects of integrated waste-to-energy projects in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region

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Abstract

A single municipal solid waste treatment technique may not be adequate to effectively treat the municipal solid waste (MSW) produced across the globe. This is due to the different composition and physical characteristics of the MSW. This has changed China's waste management strategy to integrated waste management systems since the 13th Five-Year-Plan in 2016. Therefore, the present study evaluates the electricity generation potential, economic feasibility, and the environmental impact of integrated waste-to-energy technologies in China, taking the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region as a case study. The study considers the integration of anaerobic digestion and landfill gas to energy (AD/LFGTE), anaerobic digestion and incineration (AD/INC), and incineration and landfill gas to energy (INC/LFGTE). The prominent findings show that AD/LFGTE has the highest electricity generation potential during the project period. It was found that AD/LFGTE contributed 24.52% to the region’s electricity needs, while AD/INC and INC/LFGTE contributed 22.68% and 1.88%, respectively. According to the economic analysis, all the projects are viable in the area and have a positive net present value. The AD/LFGTE project was found to be more economical with a lower levelized cost of energy (US$0.0915/kWh), shorter investment payback period (9.1 years), and higher profit (US$1,331.19 million) on investment. It was observed that the integrated systems could avoid a considerable amount of coal consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, with AD/LFGTE having the highest saving ability.

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Data availability

All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this article [and its supplementary information files].

Abbreviations

\(A_{{({\text{CH}}_{{4}} )}}\) :

Volume of landfill gas (methane) captured from the landfills (m3/year)

\({\rm{AD}_{( {O} \& {M})}}\) :

Operations & maintenance costs of anaerobic digestion project

\({\text{AD}}_{{\left( {{\text{size}}} \right)}}\) :

Size of the anaerobic digestion plant in kilowatt (kW)

CH4 :

Methane

CO2 :

Carbon dioxide

\({\text{COMP}}_{{\left( {{\text{waste}}} \right)t}}\) :

Composition of typical municipal solid waste generated in China (%)

\({\text{CS}}_{{\left( {{\text{InT}}} \right)}}\) :

Amount of coal saved by each of the integrated technologies (t/year)

\(E_{{\left( {{\text{AD}}} \right)}}\) :

Electricity generation potential of the anaerobic digestion technology(kWh/year)

\({\text{EF}}_{{\left( {{\text{pol}}} \right)}}\) :

Emission factor of coal for the GHGs

\(E_{{\left( {{\text{LFGTE}}} \right)}}\) :

Electricity generation potential of the landfill gas to energy technology(kWh/year)

\(E_{{\left( {{\text{INC}}} \right)}}\) :

Electricity generation potential of the incineration technology (kWh/year)

\({\text{FIT}}\) :

Feed-in tariff (US$/kWh)

\(G_{{\left( {{\text{cost}}} \right)}}\) :

Permitting, surveying, and engineering cost

\(h\) :

Number of wells dug at the site

\({\text{H}}_{{\text{n}}}\) :

Net cash flow

H2S:

Hydrogen sulfide

\(IE_{{\left( {{\text{cost}}} \right)}}\) :

Cost of installation of the landfill gas to energy’s internal combustion engine

\({\text{IN}}_{{\left( {{\text{LFGTE}}} \right){\text{cost}}}}\) :

Initial investment cost of the landfill gas to energy project

\({\text{IN}}_{{\left( {{\text{INC}}} \right){\text{cost}}}}\) :

Initial investment cost of the incineration project

\({\text{InT}}\) :

The integrated project

\(k\) :

Mole ratio of nitrogen

\(K_{{\left( {{\text{cost}}} \right)}}\) :

Cost of installation of a blower, flare system, and knockout

\(L_{O}\) :

Potential methane generation capacity (m3/t)

\({\rm{LFGTE}}_{\rm{( {{{O\& M}}} )}} {\multimap }\) :

Operations & maintenance costs of landfill gas to energy project

\({\text{LFGTE}}_{{\left( {{\text{size}}} \right)}}\) :

Size of the internal combustion engine in kilowatt (kW)

\({\text{LHV}}_{{\left( {{\text{methane}}} \right)}}\) :

Lower heating value of methane (MJ/m3)

\(M_{{\left( {{\text{flow}}} \right)}}\) :

Rate at which the landfill methane flow

\({\text{MW}}_{{\left( {{\text{col}}} \right)}}\) :

Amount of municipal solid waste collected (t/year)

\(N_{{\left( {{\text{rate}}} \right)}}\) :

Inflation rate (%)

NH3 :

Ammonia

\(p\) :

Economic period (years)

\({\rm{P}}_{{\rm{bio}} {({\rm{CH}}_{4})}}\) :

Purified biogas (bio-methane) obtained via the anaerobic process (m3/year)

\({\text{PF}}_{{\left( {{\text{InT}}} \right)}}\) :

Profit from the integrated project

\({\text{PL}}_{{\left( {{\text{cost}}} \right)}}\) :

Actual cost of the anaerobic digestion plant

\({\text{pol}}\) :

Pollutant of calculation

\(r\) :

Annual real discount rate (%)

\({\text{Rev}}_{{\left( {{\text{InT}}} \right)}}\) :

Revenue gained from the projects

\({\text{SW}}_{{\left( {{\text{AD}}} \right)}}\) :

Amount of food waste utilized in the anaerobic digestion technology (t/year)

\({\text{SW}}_{{\left( {{\text{LFGTE}}} \right)}}\) :

Amount of waste that was used in the landfill gas to energy technology (t/year)

\({\text{SW}}_{{\left( {{\text{INC}}} \right)}}\) :

Amount of combustible waste utilized in the incineration technology(t/year)

\(t\) :

Type of waste-to-energy technology

\({\text{T}}_{{\left( {{\text{InT}}} \right)}}\) :

Tax paid on the project

\({\text{T}}_{{\left( {{\text{rate}}} \right)}}\) :

Marginal tax rate (%)

\({\text{TBio}}_{{\left( {{\text{volume}}} \right)}}\) :

Volume of the theoretical biogas (m3/year)

\({\text{TLCC}}_{{\left( {{\text{InT}}} \right)}}\) :

Total life cycle cost

\(V_{{\left( {{\text{cost}}} \right)}}\) :

Capital cost of the installed vertical gas extraction wells

\(W_{{\left( {{\text{cost}}} \right)}}\) :

Cost of fixing wellheads and pipes gathering

\(xf\) :

Oxidation factor of the landfill (%)

\(Xft\) :

Well’s depth

\(\in_{{\left( {{\text{eff}}} \right)}}\) :

Electricity generation efficiency of biogas-fired generator (%)

\({\upchi }_{{\left( {{\text{InT}}} \right)}}\) :

Capital recovery factor (CRF)

\(\gamma_{{\left( {{\text{ef}}} \right)}}\) :

Efficiency of the coal power plant (%)

\(\mu_{{\left( {{\text{cap}}} \right)}}\) :

Capacity factor (%)

\(\in\) :

Electricity generation efficiency of the conversion device (%)

\(\alpha\) :

Nominal discount rate (%)

\(\beta\) :

Conversion factor from MJ to kWh

\(\pi\) :

Landfill methane collection efficiency (%)

\(\tau\) :

Electrical efficiency of the steam turbine (%)

\(\varphi\) :

Density of coal (kg/m3)

AD:

Anaerobic digestion technology

BMT:

Biological and mechanical treatment

GHGs:

Greenhouse gases

HSWM:

Hybrid solid waste management

IEA:

International energy agency

INC:

Incineration technology

IPP:

Investment payback period

IWtE:

Integrated waste-to-energy technologies

LCOE:

Levelized cost of energy

LFGTE:

Landfill gas to energy technology

MSW:

Municipal solid waste

NPV:

Net present value

OMC:

Operations & maintenance cost

WtE:

Waste-to-energy

References

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Funding

The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 72050410354), and The Startup Foundation for Introducing Talent of NUIST (Grant No. 2021r111).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Business, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, Nanjing, 210044, China

    Dan Cudjoe

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  1. Dan Cudjoe
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D.C.: Conceptualization, Methodology, Software, Writing—Original draft, Validation, Investigation, Writing—Reviewing and Editing, Supervision, and Funding Acquisition.

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Correspondence to Dan Cudjoe.

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Appendix

Appendix

See Tables 8, 9 and 10.

Table 8 The amount of waste collected for disposal in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region from 2004 to 2018 (NBS, 2018)
Full size table
Table 9 Ultimate analysis of MSW generated in China (Zhou et al., 2015)
Full size table
Table 10 The per capita electricity consumption of China and the population of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei from 2004 to 2018
Full size table

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Cudjoe, D. Energy-economics and environmental prospects of integrated waste-to-energy projects in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region. Environ Dev Sustain 25, 12597–12628 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-022-02581-3

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