Waste to Energy Management

Abstract

Today, the world faces growing challenges with waste problems since people have moved the problems from past to future. The key question is: is waste a problem or a resource? The correct response to this question can be found by investigating, in more detail, the types of waste and implemented waste management methods. The chapter consists of six main sections. The first section is focused on classification, which explains what waste is and categorizes it according to the producer (e.g., municipal, industrial, and hazardous) and chemical composition (for instance, organic, inorganic, and microbiological). The second section presents legislative trends. It is seen that the waste management legislations are changing from country to country. Also, it can change over time because every technological development emerges its waste. The third section covers waste management methods such as recycling, refuse-derived fuel, landfill, and thermal methods. The landfill method is the oldest and the cheapest one. It is seen that the method will continue in the near future, too, though a lot of legal regulations have been made to reduce its usage. Thermal methods are commonly used in the industrial sector. Hence, thermal methods such as incineration, pyrolysis, and gasification are examined in detail. Considering environmental issues, thermal technology moves toward gasification systems to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and the formation of by-products. The fourth section presents illustrative examples related to using waste management methods or their combinations. Further, a case study, which consists of a circulated fluidized bed gasification system, is investigated from the exergy and exergoeconomic points of view. The chapter presents exergy and exergoeconomic analyses in detail. The analyses show that it can produce 1.17 MWe power and 0.521kg/s hydrogen with 3.33 $/kg cost from 8.5kg/s biomass waste. Finally, future scenarios for waste management are investigated. Also, to achieve zero waste targets in the future, circular economy and industrial symbiosis concepts are examined, and some successful examples from around the world are presented. © 2025 Elsevier Inc. All rights are reserved, including those for text and data mining, AI training, and similar technologies.