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 gas emissions, due to its growing energy consumption, surpass the US as the largest CO2 producer in 2009, even though China's per capita CO2 emissions will still be only three-fifths of the average in industrialized countries in 2030. Chinese resources and energy management policies are addressing this problem and sustainable waste management could significantly contribute to achieve the development targets. The Sino-German project on ‘Resource Recovery of Bioorganic Municipal Waste (RRU-BMW)’ has elaborated results, based on suggestions that were developed how to integrate better waste treatment and renewable energy production via biogas generation, considering a joint approach between Chinese urban and rural areas. From BMW derived biogas (6 GW_(tot)) could be generated till 2020 and even up to 25 GW_(tot) till 2050. The total estimated potential from all decentralized (56m rural household digesters plus decentralized wastewater treatment systems DEWATS in 2020) and centralized waste-biomass sources, including MSW, agriculture and agro-industrial waste, as well as from municipal waste landfills is about 100 GW_(tot). Due to the high biodegradability of urban wastes and the low standard in operating practice, landfill gas collection and utilization should only be applied to existing landfills, as an emission prevention measure, but not for newly disposed MSW. Increasing energy prices, carbon funds and greenhouse gas emission trading systems may be essential economic drivers to develop this infrastructure.