Selection of an appropriate waste-to-energy conversion technology for Dhaka City, Bangladesh

Abstract

Solid waste disposal poses a significant problem, as it leads to land pollution if openly dumped, water pollution if dumped in low lands and air pollution if burnt. Moreover, the scarcity of land and increase in land prices especially in Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh create the problems of developing new landfill sites. Realising the existing and future impacts of waste disposal issues, the analytic hierarchy process model was applied to select an appropriate Waste-to-Energy (WTE) conversion technology for household waste of Dhaka-Mirpur Cantonment area. Three alternatives, namely, anaerobic digestion, pyrolysis and plasma gasification (PG) technologies and nine criteria under three aspects (technological, environmental and financial) were chosen for comparison. The analysis revealed that PG is the most appropriate WTE conversion technology in the study area. The selected PG technology has a relatively small footprint; it can treat unsorted waste and can produce good-quality synthetic gas without generating extremely toxic by-products.

Keywords

• solid waste
• waste to energy
• analytic hierarchy process
• plasma gasification