Technoeconomic Analysis of Thermochemical Waste Conversion Technologies

Thermochemical waste conversion technologies like pyrolysis and gasification have gained much attention over the years due to their high efficiencies and the capability to handle diverse waste composition in co-production processes. One of the effective ways to transform waste materials (e.g. plastic waste, waste tires, agricultural waste, etc.) into value-added bioproducts like bio-oil, bioelectricity, and biochemicals is through waste-to-energy (WtE). The technoeconomic analysis (TEA) results of thermochemical waste conversion technologies were discussed and compared with fossil-based conversion technologies. Bioproducts from thermochemical conversion technologies are found to be highly competitive with fossil diesel in terms of cost though they require high initial capital investment (TCI) for commercial scale facilities. The scale-up of waste pyrolysis, for instance, is found to drastically reduce the cost of bio-oil by about 35–88% which could be competitive with fossil-based diesel. Sensitivity analysis results of thermochemical waste conversion technologies are discussed in this chapter.