Municipal Solid Waste Solutions

Municipal solid waste is entirely a different story when it comes to scientific uncertainty. The failed case of the shuttered MSW plant developed in Cape Town at a cost of over R400 million and the now-closed world bank funded landfill gas extraction plant in Durban both highlight the significant technical risks that arise when dealing with unpredictable municipal solid waste. 

Challenges include the need for developing a solution for MSW, OFSW to produce biogas after successfully the removing non-degradable elements in such substrates. There are currently no proven, bankable technology providers offering a technical solution based on MSW to potential owners of AD plants, using the promising technology called “Dry Fermentation”, the process on which all plants attempted to date have been built.

By integrating a Dry Fermentation solution, several problems occur: 

1. All leftovers remained at the end of the Fermentation process must be “dumped” or alternatively sorted. As a result, the addition of a costly sorting process becomes obligatory. 
2. Due to the high content of organic waste, liquid residues are generated and WWTP solutions must be integrated. 
3. The total gas production is 30% lower compared to when the same substrate is subjected to a Wet Fermentation process 
4. CapEx is between 1.5 times to 2 times higher than similar size plant based on Wet Fermentation. 

Waste2Energy plans to develop its own solution that it will provide to the end customer that achieves the following: 

1. A pre-treating process whereby substrates to remove all nonorganic fractions and inert substrates and sorted and removed 
2. A target of 45% increase on MSW gas production when compared to dry fermentation processed MSW 
3. A comprehensive solution for waste treatment at the end of the process, whereby water /liquids are disposed of based on the local water requirements. 
4. The potential for an additional CO2 recovery process from the biogas, to be fed into greenhouses to boost fruit and vegetable production and potentially to sell it for industrial processes.