Co-generation based energy recovery from municipal solid waste integrated with the existing energy supply system M. Luoranen * , M. Horttanainen Lappeenranta University of Technology, Department of Energy and Environmental Technology, P.O. Box 20, FIN -53851 Lappeenranta, Finland Accepted 28 December 2006 Available online 6 March 2007 Abstract The SISMan (Simple Integrated System Management) decision-aid model is introduced in this paper. The SISMan model is used in a demonstration of evaluating the viability of adding an Energy-from-Waste (EfW) plant to an existing municipal energy supply system. The integrated system utilizes co-generation in heat and electricity production. The evaluation is carried out by calculating the energy and money flows for the integrated system and comparing the results to the original system values. No ‘‘competing technologies’’ to the EfW alternative are presented; the evaluation is carried out simply by comparing the original (‘‘existing’’) system flows to the inte- grated system flows. The results show that in certain conditions it is feasible to integrate an EfW plant with the existing municipal energy supply system in Finland. However, the conditions for a viable integration may not be so easy to fulfill. Ó 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction The European Union has published several directives concerning different areas of waste management. The mem- ber states are working hard to adapt to the new regulations and requirements. In Finland, the targets for material recovery and recycling set by the legislation are presented in the national waste plan, based on the Waste Act and EU waste directives. The plan presents the state of waste management in Finland (year 2002), and sets both quanti- tative and qualitative targets to be achieved by 2005. The targets for reduction and recovery rates vary for different types of waste. For municipal waste, housing construction and industrial waste, 15% less waste was to be generated annually by 2005 compared to 1994, accounting for real growth in GNP (Finnish Ministry of the environment, 2005). Many Finnish energy and waste management experts have stated that the targets for recovery and recycling will not be achieved in Finland, unless energy recovery from waste materials is adapted. Sipila ¨ (2002) has given an esti- mate according to which approximately 1 Mt/a of munici- pal solid waste (MSW) should be used for energy production in Finland, if no new large-scale recycling alter- natives are introduced. The amount of MSW in energy use has been approximately 0.3 Mt/a for some years. Mean- while, environmental organizations claim that thermal treatment of waste is against Finnish and EU waste man- agement policies. This ‘‘battle of wills’’ has led to a situa- tion where most of the planned constructing projects (altogether approximately 20 in the fall of 2004) are being held back, as the environmental organizations have made official complaints concerning the projects. Also the munic- ipalities and authorities concerned have their own roles in the discussion. Thus, it is relevant to discuss the possibili- 0956-053X/$ - see front matter Ó 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.wasman.2006.12.014 * Corresponding author. Tel.: +358 5 621 11; fax: +358 5 621 6399. E-mail address: Mika.Luoranen@lut.fi (M. Luoranen). www.elsevier.com/locate/wasman Available online at www.sciencedirect.com Waste Management 28 (2008) 30–38