Wastes as Novel Source of Energy: Technical and Economic Aspects

Faced with the rate at which modern societies have been exploiting natural resources over the last few decades, through economic growth, galloping demographics, increasing resource consumption, the progressive generation of waste, and the unprecedented boom in industrial production, mainly through the consumption of energy and raw materials, and the emergence of climate change phenomena and pollution of natural resources, it is becoming imperative to resort to new resources to sustain the regenerative capacity of the planet Earth and to meet the needs of future generations. Waste management can be a significant part of the solution. Reducing, reusing, recycling, and reclaiming waste contributes to prolonging the residence time of these residual materials in systems and lessening the demand on natural resources, on the one hand, and to making these residual materials economical beneficial and limiting their potential effects, often of a harmful and problematic nature, on the other. In this chapter, we will look at the different aspects of management based on the principles of energy conversion and conservation from a residual source. We will also look at urban waste problems. Management aspects are clarified and dissected according to several scientific, social, economic, and political approaches. This management is therefore in line with the principles of sustainable socio-economic development based on various scientific and socio-economic foundations and approaches. Waste is a residual substance that poses problems for mankind and the environment. It is exploitable biomass that stores chemical energy from agricultural and industrial effluents, plant sludge, and many urban wastes. They are an appreciable source of renewable energy, primarily represented by their incineration in well-established plants, or their biotransformation into biogas in well-established facilities. The principles of these two processes, their installation, and the procedure for their implementation are described, sometimes in significant detail. In addition, operating characteristics and expected energy yields are described. They are indicated alongside some of the weak points of the various processes listed and quoted. In this way, waste, once seen simply as problematic refuse, now represents a resource that can replace a fraction of the raw material used. This procedure for the energetic reuse of waste is well-advised and contributes to the reinforcement of natural resources, but cannot provide a replacement source for these resources since it has long been known that it remains inexhaustible.