Tadashi Abe

President, Financial Catalyst International

Abstract

In the United States, waste-to-energy projects based on mass burning and RDF systems have been competing with each other in order to realize the overall merits of the projects-such as low initial investment, efficiency of operation, efficiency of electricity generation, savings of landfill space, efficiencies in air emission control, etc. In this background, there exists the fact that large-size projects are implemented mainly on a private basis, which forces those people working on the project to make a considerable effort to attain the overall merits of the project and its self sustainability. There is no significant development of the RDF project based on pelletized RDF in the United States, due to economic reason. One of the most applicable projects to Japan among the RDF projects is SEMASS Project in Massachusetts. Through a short review of the evolution process of RDF projects, which simply mean fuel processed prior to combustion, further study on ways the waste were processed and combusted through improving the structure of boilers-making it "dedicated" to the RDF boiler which can combust efficiently and with conditions acceptable to environment. It seems necessary to review whether the pelletizing of waste is a system fit for Japan considering the long term overall merits of waste-to-energy projects.

Key words: SEMASS, self sustainability, dedicated boiler