Analysis of municipal solid waste incineration plants for promoting power generation efficiency in Taiwan

Taiwan is a developed nation with approximately 98 % of its energy supplied by imported fuels. In this regard, the efficient energy utilization of municipal solid waste (MSW) is thus becoming attractive in Taiwan because the production of electricity from this source in 2012 has increased to 3,057 GWh, of which 2,350 GWh, or 76.8 %, was connected to the public grid system with the revenues of US$ 154 million. According to the official statistics on the operation status of MSW incineration plants with design capacity of over 300 ton/day in Taiwan, a preliminary analysis of power generation efficiencies for 24 large-scale MSW incineration plants was carried out in the paper. It showed that the energy efficiencies of MSW incineration plants in Taiwan were relatively low with a gross value of 16.2 % in recent years (2008–2012). This meant that a majority of produced heat was discharged into the atmosphere without efficient recovery. As a consequence, the central competent authority in Taiwan is currently planning a promotion policy for combining the district heating and cooling system with waste heat from all MSW incineration plants, which aims at a 30 % increase in the overall energy efficiency.