INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC SURVEY JOURNAL VOL 2 №2 2019 INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC SURVEY JOURNAL 1 Investigation into Energy Generation from Solid Waste Management in Selected Areas of Western States of Nigeria Tunde Claudius Akintayo Federal University of Technology, Akure, Nigeria Abstract This research describes the current situation of waste management in Nigeria, highlighting the challenges and opportunities for energy generation and improved energy efficiency via waste-to-energy technologies using waste as feedstock. For a suitable and sustainable energy generation, various energy conversion technologies were observed. Thereafter, the attached benefits of the various technologies in terms of economic, environmental, and energy are contained in this report. In addition, this study identified what constitutes solid waste, and sources of generation, developed appropriate sorting method for separating the solid waste into its components. The energy convertible ones were identified as well as calorific value available in each component. This we believe will help those seeking energy from solid waste to make decisions. The technologies behind each conversion method were also explained in this study as well as the cost implication. This investigation proved that: anaerobic digestion is a net energy-producing process; biogas facilities produced high-quality renewable fuel; surplus energy as electricity and heat is produced during anaerobic digestion of biomass; anaerobic digestion reduces reliance on energy imports; the facilities involved positively contributed to decentralization and distribution of power system and it proved also that biogas is a rich sources of electricity, heat and transportation fuel. In no doubt, this research will assist small, medium and large scale industries in both developed and developing countries to made decision when sourcing for energy to man their industries. It will also go a long way as help for domestic use. Key words: energy generation, investigation, opportunities and challenges, municipal solid waste (MSW), waste management. Introduction Waste is generally defined as any material that is no longer needed or no longer useful to the owner. Wastes can be solid, liquid or gaseous. However, the focus of this research tends to be on solid wastes. Solid wastes typically may be classified as follows: Garbage; decomposable wastes from food. Rubbish; non-decomposable wastes, either combustible (such as paper, wood, and cloth) or non-combustible (such as metal, glass, and ceramics). Ashes: residues of the combustion of solid fuels (Daskalopoulos, 1998, Basic Facts, 2005). The history of garbage is as old as human kind itself. For most of the past two and a half million years, human beings have left their garbage where it fell (Williams et. al., 1993). Dumping waste on the outskirts of town or into natural depressions or valleys has long been the favoured practice, because it was cheap and healthy, and environmental issues were not a priority (Glover, 1995). Wastes sources can be domestic, industrial, agricultural, commercial or institutional. The wastes generated from these sources can be biodegradable-able to decompose naturally or non-biodegradable-those that cannot decay or decompose naturally. In the developing countries like Nigeria, wastes have been found to have high organic content and are biodegradable. Osewa, (1993) gave the composition of Nigeria city wastes as in Table 1 (Cointreau, 1982; USEPA, 2003). In developing countries, there is a much higher proportion of organics, and considerably less plastics (Cointreau, 1982).