The principle of a waste to energy facility is to use garbage, also called muncipal solid waste (MSW), as a fuel to generate electricity. There are two ecomomic forces which create a need to develop a need to develop facilities such as the one highlighted in this presentation. The first is the need for volume reduction of the waste. Waste to Energy facilities and Incineration processes in general, result in a large reduction in the volume of the waste. This is necessary because of due to the limited amount of landfill space which is currently available. The second force is the need to dispose of medical waste. Many of our current hospitals lack the technology to incinerate the medical waste they generate on site. It is not currently feasible to place medical waste in a municipal solid waste landfill due to the potential pathogenic and hazardous nature of the waste. Therefore a process which can ensure complete thermal destruction is required.
The figure below is a general schematic of a waste to energy facility.
Click here to see the plant schematic which currently doesn't exist