Economic Development with Sustainable Waste Management

Transcription

1 April 25-26, 2016 Megacities Workshop of Earth Engineering Center of City College of New York Economic Development with Sustainable Waste Management Prof. Nickolas J. Themelis, Director Chair, Global WTERT Council (GWC)

2 The downs of Economic Development All nations and cities are seeking further economic development (ED). In physical terms, ED entails greater use, per capita, of materials and energy. Higher consumption of materials and energy results in the generation of more gases ( Climate Change"), and solids (contamination of land and water). Therefore, ED should be accompanied by Sustainable Waste Management of gas and solid by-products of human activity

3 In the U.S., all the MSW is collected and disposed properly But, in many countries, part of the MSW stream is not collected or is disposed in waste dumps. For example, our sister organization,wtert- Brazil is engaged on a project that uses a wheel machine to fish floating garbage from rivers that discharge to Guanavara Bay (site of Olympic 2016 sailing races).

4 Global generation and disposition of MSW Estimated global disposition of post-recycling municipal solid wastes: Thermal treatment (WTE): 230 million tons Sanitary landfill, partial CH4 recovery: 250 million tons Landfilled without CH4 recovery: >800 million tons MSW generation is expected to double by 2030

5 Breakdown$by$EPA$Regions$ Recycling, composting, combusting, and landfilling rates by regions U.S tons of MSW:. Region$10$ 87.8 million 32%$ 2.555%$ million 10%$ Region$8$ 79%$ 9%$ 10%$2%$ Region$5$ 15%$ 5%$ 4%$ 76%$ Region$1$ 24%$ 27%$ 8%$ 41%$ 3%$ 24.9 million 29.5 million Region$2$ 23%$ 52%$ 21%$ 4%$ 51%$ Region$9$ 249 million 37%$ 10%$ 2%$ Region$3$ 24%$ 54%$ 17%$ 5%$ Region$7$ Region$6$ Region$4$ 0 Recycled' Composted' Combusted'(WTE)' Landfilled' 76%$ 22%$ 2%$ 78%$ 11%$ 11%$ 73%$ 19%$ 2%$ 6%$

6 Ladder of sustainable waste management in E.U. (U.S. at level of Ireland)

7 Progress made in diversion from landfilling in U.S.,( ) MSW disposal method (%)

8 Progress made in recycling rates of specific materials (U.S., ) Recycling as % of solid waste generation

9 Disposition of Food and Green Wastes in the U.S. (2011; Themelis and Arsova, BioCycle) Composted (million tons, estimated) Generated (million tons) Food wastes Green wastes Total % Composted

10 New York recycles! Great NYC information campaign... We use it in other countries...

11 Η Αθήνα ανακυκλώνει! ΠΑΝΩ ΣΕ ΚΑΘΕ ΚΑΒΟ ΑΝΑΚΥΚΛΩΣΗΣ, ΜΕΣΑ ΣΕ ΚΑΘΕ ΣΠΙΤΙ, ΠΕΣ ΤΟΥΣ, ΑΚΡΙΒΩΣ ΤΙ ΘΕΛΕΙΣ

12 Recycling rates can vary a lot within a city Example: Total diversion in the five boroughs of NYC, July 2014 NYC average: average: 15.1% 15.1% Manha-an Island Manhattan Bronx Brooklyn Queens Staten Island

13 Recycling rates can vary a lot within a borough of NYC! % recycling Districts within each borough Manha-an Bronx Brooklyn Queens Staten Island Range of recycling rates, for same infrastructure: 5 26%

14 What to do with Post-recycling MSW MSW remaining a5er all possible recycling and compos>ng is called post-recycling ONLY two ways for sustainable management of postrecycling MSW: - Sanitary landfilling - Thermal processing with energy recovery (Waste to energy or WTE)

15 Big problem of WTE in parts of U.S.: Public perception and acceptance The results of early waste incineration were an environmental disaster (Brunner and Zobrist, 1983). It has taken several years of environmental activism, legislation, science, and technology for the global WTE industry to transform incineration" to waste-to-energy (WTE). WTE is by now acknowledged (IPCC, 2014) as an integral part of sustainable waste management.

16 Columbia detailed studies of four nations' annual WTE dioxin emissions Country Year of study MSW processed (million tons) Average Dioxin Emissions (ng TEQ/Nm 3 ) Total Dioxins Emi-ed g TEQ/year USA (all) France (all) South Korea (all) <1 China( only 19 plants, 2009) In progress at Columbia: Inventory of dioxin emissions from 160 Chinese WTE plants

17 The remaining disadvantage of WTE Higher initial capital investment, per ton MSW capacity, than sanitary landfilling. The new Durham County (Ontario) and the Palm Beach (Florida) WTE facilities: CAPEX >$600/annual ton of capacity Durham York Energy Center Palm Beach (Florida) WTE

18 WTE and landfilling gate fees estimated by Columbia University for the U.S. and Latin America Gate fee difference between sanitary landfills and WTE, in the U.S., about $20/ton MSW (more for WTE) In Latin America, the additional gate fee of $20/ton required for WTE would disappear if the CAPEX of WTE plants can be reduced by $200 per annual ton of capacity (equivalent to about $20/ton MSW).

19 Lower CAPEX of WTE technologies? It is necessary to develop less costly WTE plants: China is leading The CAPEX per ton MSW of moving grate WTEs, outside China, has not decreased since the nineties (no benefit of learning curve of industrial experience). Very large investment in R&D by China has resulted in over 40% of new WTE plants to be based on Circulating Fluid Bed (CFB) technology.

20 Phenomenal growth of WTE in China Millions tons Number of plants China is now No. 1 user of WTE

21 Moving grate and CFB WTE WTE Technologies used in China!"#$%"&'(#"' Moving grate WTE Circulating fluid bed WTE

22 Recent WTE plants built in China, both by moving grate (MG) and CFB technologies, at a much lower CAPEX Capital cost, $/ton MSW 2,000 1,800 1,600 1,400 1,200 1, Average of 25 other plants: $880/ton Average of 21 Chinese plants: $228/ton ,000 WTE capacity, thousand tons MSW WTE capacity, thousand ton MWS

23 China s plan for renewable electricity includes WTE Source: CHINA NATIONAL RENEWABLE ENERGY CENTER April 20, 2015

24 South Korea Sustainable waste management level vs GDP/capita E.U. 28 average (Bourtsalas, 2012)

25 How South Korea has reached relatively high level of SWM? High levels of recycling, composting and WTE, achieved in less than 20 years, by means of: Planning, policy, and regulations at national level (lacking in U.S.) Implementation at municipal level but with the assistance of national/regional agencies Public information and willing citizenship South Korea is a good example for other countries to follow (see Yoonjung.Seo Columbia thesis in

26 Global WTERT Council Awards for Waste Management (2014 Award to South Korea) Our detailed study showed that the Republic of Korea is doing an outstanding job in advancing Sustainable Waste Management (SWM). In this respect, South Korea is ahead of the U.S., although the GDP per capita is only 63% of the U.S. GDP The SWM Oscar The SWM Oscar

27 Thanks to EEC-CCNY for organizing this important workshop on megacities You are all invited to the 2016 Global WTERT Conference (Oct. 6-7), at Columbia University