Bioorganic Municipal Waste Treatment - An Approach to Strengthen Integrated Waste Management and Renewable Energy Production in China

摘要

China is one of the largest waste producers in the world. It will, regarding green house gasemissions, due to its growing energy consumption, surpass the US as the largest CO_2 producer in2009, even though China's per capita CO_2 emissions will still be only three-fifths of the averagein industrialized countries in 2030. Chinese resources and energy management policies areaddressing this problem and sustainable waste management could significantly contribute toachieve the development targets. The Sino-German project on ‘Resource Recovery of BioorganicMunicipal Waste (RRU-BMW)' has elaborated results, based on suggestions that weredeveloped how to integrate better waste treatment and renewable energy production via biogasgeneration, considering a joint approach between Chinese urban and rural areas. From BMWderived biogas (6 GW_(tot)) could be generated till 2020 and even up to 25 GW_(tot) till 2050. The totalestimated potential from all decentralized (56m rural household digesters plus decentralizedwastewater treatment systems DEWATS in 2020) and centralized waste-biomass sources,including MSW, agriculture and agro-industrial waste, as well as from municipal waste landfillsis about 100 GW_(tot). Due to the high biodegradability of urban wastes and the low standard inoperating practice, landfill gas collection and utilization should only be applied to existinglandfills, as an emission prevention measure, but not for newly disposed MSW. Increasingenergy prices, carbon funds and greenhouse gas emission trading systems may be essentialeconomic drivers to develop this infrastructure.