Decarbonization of the urban environment by municipal solid waste-to-energy system: technical and policy considerations

Abstract

The near tipping point of climate change calls for technopolicy strategies to consider infrastructures that support the environmentally friendly socioeconomic development of growing cities. African urban communities grow at an alarming rate, with socioeconomic challenges in sustaining the ever-increasing urban population. Of these, waste mismanagement and inadequate electricity supply could be considered priority challenges. The heaps of municipal wastes in the residential areas are disease carriers, sources of greenhouse gas emissions, and pose other environmental challenges. At the same time, municipal waste flows could provide sustainable energy to drive the socioeconomic development of the urban communities through waste-to-energy technologies. Therefore, as a case study, this work presents a waste-to-energy technology for Port Harcourt city, Nigeria, through the gasification process of municipal solid wastes (MSWs). The work covers the fundamental techno-economic analysis of MSW-to-power conversion technology with carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) and a broad base pathway for electrified city services, including transportation. Also, the work presents policy pathways for the energy sector to encourage (1) a circular economy by the use of waste to drive sustainable energy for the urban environment, (2) incorporation of CCS technology into the power generation systems in the country and (3) electrification of city services including urban mobility to support energy transition away from fossil since the transport sector is the major consumer of fossil fuels. The policy pathways envisioned the deep decarbonization of the ever-growing cities.