STUDY ON SOLID WASTE GENERATION IN KUANTAN, MALAYSIA: ITS POTENTIAL FOR ENERGY GENERATION

摘要

In Malaysia, most of the municipal solid waste goes to the landfill or dumping sites. The non-hazardous and general industrial waste are often treated together. The existing dumping sites mostly are not properly engineered and managed. Pollutants that are released or discharged from the disposal sites could contaminate groundwater system, flora and fauna which will eventually cause direct and indirect impact to human’s life (Mahmood, 2000). Presently, the amount of solid waste was produced in Kuantan is about 500 tons daily, consisting of 60% domestic waste and 40% of industrial and construction waste. However, the present sanitary landfill is nearly filled up (Ismail, 2006). In order to overcome this problem, an alternative by using incineration (waste to energy) system should be applied. By using this technology, solid waste will combusted to generate energy from burning heat. A study was conducted in Kuantan area to determine the daily solid waste generation. These waste generated rates were then calculated for the energy conversion. The results indicated that average value of total energy produced from solid waste of Kuantan is 19.3808kWh for year 2008 and 17.8942kWh for year 2009 and could be utilized as electricity, in order to save amount of energy and cost used.