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Waste-to-energy incineration: Evaluation of energy potential for urban domestic waste in guayaquil

Abstract:

This study determines the composition, production rate and theoretical calorific valuation of domestic waste. A total number of 665 households were randomly selected and asked to separate their waste in 8 subfractions for a period of 2 weeks. The waste was then weighted and classified in 2 major categories: Biodegradable waste comprising 81.8% and nonbiodegradable waste comprising 18.2% of total domestic waste per day per capita for the entire sample. This study shows at city level, the role which domestic waste could play in supplying energy for the industry or the country in general and provides an estimate of the potential energy from waste. Total daily energy potential is 2.48 TJ for incineration and 1.80 TJ for methane production by anaerobic digestion. Since domestic waste is a renewable source, by its incineration the country could reduce as much as 63 thousand tons of CO2 emissions in one year replacing diesel.