Study of the Energy Recovery of the Reject Materials from Municipal Solid Waste Treatment Plants in Spain

In 2012, 21.2 million metric tons of municipal solid waste were collected in Spain (MAGRAMA 2014), of which 85% corresponds to mixed waste. This is then treated in different plants with the aim of recovering materials for their subsequent recycling and the transformation of the biodegradable organic fraction into compost and biogas. However, of the total amount of material processed in these plants, 42.2% is rejected. In Spain, there are 10 energy recovery plants. In 2012, only 13.57% of the total amount of the rejected material was processed in these plants. The rest was deposited in landfills. Therefore, a significant amount of the material is rejected, and is not currently exploited. The aim of this work is to analyze, on the one hand, the potential energy recovery of the material rejected from the municipal solid waste plants in energy recovery plants, by studying the energy efficiency of the existing plants. On the other hand, it will also compare different energy valorization technologies in order to analyze the need for new Waste-to-Energy plants to take advantage of all the rejected biofuel material generated in Spain.