Technology, cost, a performance of waste-to-energy incineration industry in China

Zhao Xin-gang, Jiang Gui-wu, Li Ang and Li Yun

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 2016, vol. 55, issue C, 115-130

Abstract: With the upgrading of urbanization and improvement of living standards, the volume of municipal solid waste (MSW) is increasing in China. The waste-to-energy (WTE) incineration industry promotes the harmless disposal and recycling of MSW. It is an important part of the energy conservation and emission reduction tasks of “12th Five-Year Plan” period (2011–2015). Based on the development status of WTE plants in China, this paper makes an analysis of the WTE incineration industry from two aspects. The one is the analysis of political, economic, social and technological factors that influence the external environment of this industry. The other one is the discussion of technologies, costs and performances of some WTE plants in China, including a detailed cost-benefit analysis. It proves that the external environment is conducive to the development of WTE incineration industry and this industry is faced with good market prospects. Also, the net profit margin and return on investment (ROI) of WTE plants is attractive, up to 25% and 18% respectively. The pay back period is 12.73 years and the internal rate of return (IRR) is 10.94%. Thus, WTE plant has good profitability and economic benefit. Besides, WTE incineration has significant environmental benefits.

Keywords: Waste-to-energy (WTE) incineration; Industrial performance; Cost-benefit analysis; Internal rate of return (IRR); Net present value (NPV); Municipal solid waste (MSW) (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (16)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1364032115012162
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:rensus:v:55:y:2016:i:c:p:115-130

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/600126/bibliographic
http://www.elsevier. ... 600126/bibliographic

DOI: 10.1016/j.rser.2015.10.137

Access Statistics for this article

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews is currently edited by L. Kazmerski

More articles in Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().