Techno-Economic and Environmental Impact Assessment of Organic Waste Incineration for Energy Recovery in Jordan

 

Large quantities of combustible organic wastes are generated in Jordan in the absence of an efficient management system. This study suggests a waste-to-energy technology and conducts a techno-economic and environmental impact assessment to analyze its technical feasibility and economic viability and determine its potential sustainability. The waste types covered in the study were crop and fruits residue, animal manure, and organic fraction of municipal solid waste. Their calorific values were determined using an oxygen bomb calorimeter. The energy contents were ranging between 13.2  MJ/kg for cow manure and 20.3  MJ/kg for olive cake. More than 1.8  milliontons/year of these wastes are generated, which have a total potential energy of 27.6 thousand TJ/year. This energy is equivalent to 660  ktoe/year, which represents 7% of Jordan’s annual energy use. A cost-benefit analysis of the generated energy revenue compared to a potential cost of a waste-to-energy plant yields an annual profit of 18% of the annual capital cost for lifespan of 25 years and a payback period of 6.5 years. To assess the environmental impacts of recovering energy from these wastes, a life cycle assessment (LCA) was conducted to analyze the following scenarios: (S1) sanitary landfill with energy recovery, (S2) incineration of animal waste with energy recovery, and (S3) incineration of wood trimming waste with energy recovery. The results showed that incineration with energy recovery (S2, S3) significantly decreases global warming potential to 0.57 and 0.015  kg CO2-eq/kWh, respectively, compared to 9.15  kg CO2-eq/kWh for the baseline scenario (S1). Use of organic waste for energy recovery in Jordan is a waste management option that has to be considered in parallel with economic feasibility analysis and environmental impact assessment.

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