Energy recovery from waste processing. An answer to a request by the Secretary of State for industry, and Mrs the Minister of land planning and environment

This study aims at proposing an overview of the possibilities associated with an energy exploitation of wastes. Thus, it first proposes an overview of the present situation regarding wastes: annual quantities and flows, waste classifications modes, waste origins, waste collection types, waste possible uses, maximum assessment of energy possibilities, influence on greenhouse effect. Then, it addresses waste incineration processes: technique and costs of an incineration in a grate oven, thermolysis, comments on incineration economy (economic balance of energy recovery, sizing of incineration units, marginal cost, investment funding), alternative fuels, the taking of the greenhouse effect into account, optimum number and size of incineration units, external effects of transport. In the next part, the report addresses the case of wastes which are both recyclable and combustible, and discusses various related aspects: recycling without public funding, cost and efficiency of the collection and sorting of products to be recycled, value of the collected product, recycling cost compared to incineration cost, the huge effort of paper and plastic recycling, how to direct recyclable and combustible materials towards better destinations, incidence on the greenhouse effect, a German study on recycling and incineration, the cost/performance ratio of selective collection. The fourth part of this study addresses the production of methane by fermentation of the organic part of wastes: principle and technique, investment costs, operation, choice between methanization and composting, methane recovery from landfills (energy production, land-filling cost, external costs, greenhouse effect). The authors then propose a comparison of different scenarios of energy valorization. They discuss the valorization of the production of processing units which produce energy, and state some propositions for the public action.