Preferential policies promote municipal solid waste (MSW) to energy in China: Current status and prospects

Lijun Zheng, Jiancheng Song, Chuanyang Li, Yunguang Gao, Pulong Geng, Binni Qu and Linyan Lin

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 2014, vol. 36, issue C, 135-148

Abstract: As the largest developing country in the world, China creates a considerable quantity of municipal solid waste (MSW), which is one of the most serious urban pollution sources. Not only can MSW to energy contribute to a significant reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions caused by landfills, but it can also generate clean energy to offset the increasing energy requirements. MSW to energy is a novel eco-friendly renewable energy resource and has attracted the attention of both national and local governments with various preferential policies. China׳s MSW to energy development has the characteristics of late starting, large scale and rapid growth, so it urgently needs to present how these policies exert influence on the prosperity of MSW to energy in view of latest situations. This paper initially illustrates the current status of MSW management in China. The application of landfill gas-fired and MSW incineration power generation is then analysed in detail. Meanwhile, the present situation of clean development mechanism (CDM) projects in MSW to energy is presented. In addition, a series of preferential policies and regulations to encourage the expansion of MSW to energy, especially MSW incineration, are offered. Finally, the market potential of MSW incineration power generation is analysed and reasonable suggestions are proposed. Owing to the demand for sustainable development, MSW incineration power generation is capable of significant growth and has tremendous market potential for investors in future decades with the support of the Chinese government.

Keywords: Municipal solid waste (MSW); MSW to energy; MSW incineration; Landfill gas-fired power generation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (17)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1364032114002871
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:36:y:2014:i:c:p:135-148

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.2014.04.049

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 ().