Sustainable Waste Management and Waste to Energy Recovery in Thailand

Abstract

In Thailand, the municipal solid waste (MSW) generated is currently about 71,700 tons a day. Moreover, solid waste management (SWM) is an interdisciplinary issue. The concept of WM has been embraced by Thailand through the setting of a national master plan for SWM. Several waste to energy (WTE) projects have been initiated. The anaerobic digestion WTE power plant in Rayong municipality was selected for performance evaluation. It is able to treat 70 tons of organic waste per days but its actual throughput has decreased to 20 tons per day based on limited amount of waste separation effected to isolate organic waste. In addition, a better digester design is required for the actual organic waste generated. Thermal processes such as gasification and incineration in Hatyai have been applied for mixed waste. However, they suffer from the limitation that high moisture content waste can cause fluctuating heating values. Also, the environmental impact on nearby communities is an important concern. Meanwhile, investment in WTE project has been encouraged by the introduction of the feed-in tariff (FiT) rate paid for electricity generated through sustainable processes to promote energy recovery from MSW. The keys to success for WTE technologies are waste separation at source and development of machine innovation.