A sustainable pyrolysis technology for the treatment of municipal solid waste in Malaysia

Abstract

Current waste management is not able to handle the disposal rates due to the growing global population and economic expansion are increasing in Malaysia. The waste is expected to rise to 41,035 tonnes per day by the year 2026. The responsibility for the separating waste is critically lacking. The solid waste composition of Malaysia is made up of 45% of food waste, 24% of plastic, 7% of paper, 6% of iron and glass. This garbage condition is wet and mixed. The moisture content of MSW is about 55.01%. Current practices for municipal solid waste (MSW) disposal such as landfill and incineration poses a serious problem on the environment and health. Leachate generated from landfill is polluted liquid and consisted high nitrogen compounds, salts, heavy metal. Incineration generates dangerous gases such as carbon dioxide (CO2), sulfur dioxide (SO2), and oxides of nitrogen (NO and NO2, together known as NOx). Malaysia has more than 900 rivers have been polluting due to the improper solid waste management. The implementation of the thermal treatment plant (incinerator) in Malaysia was failed due the high cost of the operation. The high moisture content of the waste and a poor technical expertise in maintaining the incinerators caused the failure of the incineration operation. Thus, moisture reduction is needed prior before goes for incineration. Therefore, the current waste management system adopted by incinerator to be made improvement based on Torrefaction for effective energy recovery system. The moisture contents must be decrease to 75% before subjecting to pyrolysis or incineration. The high heating value (HHV) of the MSW is a main impact on the cost of the operation. The implementation of the pyrolysis system can be reduced the total amount of MSW before buried in landfill. The MSW pyrolysis is one of the ideas that has become increasingly in recent years. It can prevent the formation acidic substances and reduce the amount of garbage before sending over to the landfill and save the transportation fuel.