Part I: Analysis of the Economics of Waste-to-energy Plants in China Part Ii: Msw Sorting Models in China and Potential for Improvement

In a period of less than twenty years, China has become a major actor in the implementation of waste-to-energy technologies for managing municipal solid wastes (MSW); at the present time, an estimated 15% (23 million tons of MSW) are processed in over 100 WTE plants. China is also an exception to the general rule that nations with relatively low GDP per capita rely exclusively on landfilling. The objective of the first part of this thesis was to examine the technical, policy, and economic factors that have contributed to this rapid expansion of WTE capacity in China and the business models used. The study concentrated on large cities in China, in particular Shanghai, Beijing, and Guangzhou. Despite the booming WTE market, landfilling is still the main method of waste management in Chinese cities. The landfilling rates of post-recycling MSW in Shanghai, Beijing, and Guangzhou are 75%, 85%, and 79%. An appreciable fraction goes to non-regulated waste dumps, which is called " non-harmless treatment ". The current system has several problems such as low recycling efficiency, lack of landfill space, and related environmental problems. The cost for waste transportation and processing in modern sanitary landfills is high. Therefore, WTE capacity should be increased since it is an effective and, in the long-term, economical solution to the current waste crisis. On the technical level, Chinese cities are adept to using modern WTE. Imported moving grate technology dominates the domestic WTE market. The most popular air pollution control (APC) system is the combination of semi-dry scrubber, activated carbon injection, and baghouse filter. NOx control equipment is used in some facilities. According to the field study in Shanghai and other major cities, the WTE plants have very low emissions of dioxins and mercury, far below the EU 2010 standard. NOx emission is higher than the E.U. standard but still within the Chinese National Standard. New national standards will come into effect in 2013 and will bring the limitation for Cd, Pb, etc. to the same level as the E.U. standard. The build-operate-transfer (BOT) ownership model is currently preferred for financing and operating WTE plants in China. This model utilizes private investment, reduces government capital investment and drives the privatization of the waste management industry. A series of favorable policies are created to encourage the development of WTE in China. The most representative is the " grid electricity pricing " , applying specifically to WTE power. …