Katsuya Nagata* and Michiya Ureshino*

* Waseda University

+ Correspondence should be addressed to Katsuya Nagata:
(3-4-1 Okubo, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 169 Japan)

Abstract

Environmental protection and resource conservation are now major issues all over the world. Incineration can be an effective technique for disposal and energy recovery from municipal solid waste because it can destroy hazardous materials and significantly reduce mass and volume. It also possesses a relatively high potential for energy recovery. The various kinds of high efficiency systems for waste-to-energy are developed and proposed. RDF (Refuse Derived Fuel) is included as one of these systems. The production process for RDF is required energy input, but energy can be recovered from RDF with high efficiency. In this research, we first conducted a life cycle energy estimation for the conventional waste-to-energy system. This includes transport of waste and ash, construction, operation and maintenance of the plant and landfill site. Secondly, a power generation system using RDF was compared to the conventional system for performance of substantial electric power supply and for the life cycle assessment procedure proposed in our previous studies.

Key words: refuse derived fuel, waste-to-energy system, life cycle energy analysis, life cycle assessment, electric power generation