Potential for greenhouse gas reduction and energy recovery from MSW through different waste management technologies

Municipal solid waste (MSW) mainly consists of degradable materials, which cause a significant increase in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The purpose of this study is to conduct a comprehensive analysis of GHG reductions and energy recovery potentials from MSW in Dammam, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). To achieve this purpose, the amount of generated landfill gas (LFG), the potential of energy recovery, and the environmental impacts in terms of GHG emissions were investigated. The methodology includes three waste management scenarios: i) a material recovery facility (MRF) with composting, ii) landfilling, and iii) incineration (waste-to-energy WtE). The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), LandGEM, and iWARM of Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) models were used to estimate GHG emissions, mitigation, and energy recovery. The results showed that scenarios 1 and 3 generated the least amount of GHG emissions of −2,142,618 tCO2-eq/yr and −287,873 tCO2-eq/yr, respectively. The global warming potentials (GWPs) for three scenarios revealed that the highest GHG reduction per ton of MSW was from scenario 1 (−1.091 tCO2-eq/t MSW) followed by scenario 3 (−0.147 tCO2-eq/t MSW) whereas scenario 2 generated a net GHG emission of +0.265 tCO2-eq/t MSW. Furthermore, the incineration option in scenario 3 would generate, on average, about 1.91 × 109 kWh/yr electricity, which could reduce fossil fuel usage by 1.12 × 106 barrels per year. The outcomes contribute to establishing strategy of cleaner energy production throughout the reduction of GHG emissions and energy recovery from MSW.