Municipality of solid waste is typically burned at distinct plants of the waste-to-energy that utilize the fire heat to make condensation for electricity generation or for buildings heating. In the U.S. seventy one power plants generated around 14 billion kilowatt-hours of energy by burning around 30 million tons of burnable Municipality of solid waste in 2016.  In case of electricity production by using the solid waste, the biomass resources accounted for around 64 percent of the combustible MSW weight and for around 51 percent of electricity produced. The combustible MSW remainder was no biomass burnable material, primarily includes plastics. Numerous huge landfills also produce electricity by methane gas usage that is formed from decaying landfills biomass.

Waste-to-energy is a waste management option

        The generation of the electricity is only one reason to burn municipal solid waste. Waste burning decreases the material amount that would perhaps be suppressed in landfills. Municipal solid waste burning decreases the waste volume by 87 percent.

Waste-to-Energy Generation Method

        Incineration, the incineration of organic material for example energy recovery waste, is the most common implementation of the WtE. In OECD countries new WtE plants burning waste (residual MSW, commercial, industrial or RDF) must meet strict emission standards, as well as those on sulphur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen oxides (NOx), heavy dioxins and metals. Therefore, current waste to energy plants are infinitely different from traditional kinds of plants, many of them neither recovered materials nor energy. Some of the recent burners decrease the original waste volume by 95-96 %, based on degree of materials recovery and composition for example the metals from the recycling ash (Song & Zhang, 2013 ).

        Incinerators can produce heavy metals, fine particulate, acid gas and trace dioxin even these emissions are comparatively low from present incinerators. Some of the concerns include proper residues management: toxic fly ash that should be controlled in dangerous waste disposal setting and also the incinerator bottom ash that should be properly reused.

        Opponents claim that incinerators may extinguish valued resources and they might decrease recycling incentives. However, the question is open, as some of the European countries that recycle the most around 70% burn to escape from the landfilling. Incinerators also have the electric competences of 14-28 present. To avoid mislaying the energy, that can be used for e.g. district heating. The entire cogeneration incinerators efficiencies are normally higher than 80 percent (depending on the lower heating waste value) (Themelis, et al., 2015).

            The incineration method to change municipal solid waste is a comparatively old technique of generation WtE.  The waste to energy usually involves waste burning (commercial residual municipal solid waste, RDF and industrial) to water boil that powers generators in steam that produce electric energy and heat to be used in businesses, homes, industries and institutions. One difficulty linked is the possible for contaminants to arrive atmosphere with the flue boiler gases. These contaminants can be poisonous and in the 1980s were cause ecological deprivation by producing the acid rain.

            Meanwhile, the industry has eliminate this issue by using the electro-static precipitators and lime scrubbers on flues. By using temporary smoke through using lime scrubbers, acids that may be in smoke are offset that avoids the acid from reaching the atmosphere and environment hurting. There are many of the other devices, for example reactors, fabric filters, and capture or catalysts destroy other controlled impurities.   It is also stated in the New York Times, up-to-date waste to energy plants are clean that "numerous times dioxin is released from fireplaces home and courtyard roasts as compare with the waste to energy.  It is also discussed in the German Environmental Ministry, "since stringent regulations, waste to energy plants are no more important in terms of dioxins emissions, heavy metals and dust, “Other

        There are a lot of emerging and new technologies that are able to produce energy from waste and other fuels without direct combustion. These technologies also have the possibility to produce power electric from the same fuel quantity that can be possible by direct burning. This is mostly because of the corrosive components separation from transformed fuel, thereby permitting higher temperatures waste to energy for example gas turbines, boilers, fuel cells internal combustion engines. Some of them can efficiently change the energy into gaseous or liquid fuels:

Pyrolysis Plant

 Thermal technologies:

The thermal depolymerization: generate artificial crude oil, that can be refined further

            Plasma gasification process or Plasma arc gasification: generates rich syngas counting carbon monoxide and hydrogen usable for the fuel cells or producing electricity to plasma arch drive, practical vitrified metal ingots and silicate, sulphur and salt.

Gasification: generates synthetic fuels, hydrogen, combustible gas, 

Pyrolysis: generates the combustible  chars and tar/biooil 

Landfill Gas Collection

 Non-thermal technologies

Anaerobic digestion: Methane rich Biogas 

Production of Fermentation : examples are lactic acid, ethanol, hydrogen

Mechanical biological treatment 

Anaerobic digestion + MBT

Refuse derived fuel to MBT

References of  Feasibility Study and Machinery & Tools

Ike, M. et al., 2010. Microbial population dynamics during startup of a full-scale anaerobic digester treating industrial food waste in Kyoto eco-energy project. Bioresource Technology, Volume 101, p. 3952–3957.

PrachuabPeerapong & Limmeechokchaib, B., 2016. Waste to Electricity Generation in Thailand: Technology, Policy, Generation Cost, and Incentives of Investment. ENGINEERING JOURNAL, Volume 20.

Song, J. & Zhang, X., 2013 . Risk identification for PPP waste-to-energy incineration projects in China. Energy Policy , Volume 61, p. 953–962.

Themelis, N. J., Bourtsalas, A. & Guo, Z., 2015. Pre-feasibility study of a waste-to-energy (WTE) plant for Baotou city, China, China: EARTH ENGINEERING CENTER COLUMBIA UNIVERSITy.