Municipal solid waste-to-energy potential in DI Yogyakarta, Indonesia

This study presents current regional municipal waste management and Waste-to-Energy (WtE) technologies to help answer the challenges. While most of the solid municipal waste in the region is still disposed of in landfills, it has some potential to be converted into energy or electricity. Important data such as municipal waste management regulation, waste generation, compositions, and WtE potential conversion are collected and collated to present a comprehensive discussion regarding the issue. The daily waste production in DI Yogyakarta ranges from 360 to 470 tons, which is mostly comprised of organic waste. Four WtE technologies — conventional incineration, anaerobic digestion, advanced gasification, and pyrolysis — have the potential to convert this waste into electricity, generating between 0.80 and 9.86 MW, and if operated continuously, could result in an annual electricity production of 7 to 86 GWh for the region. Among the four technologies, incineration is the most mature but has issues with harmful gas emissions. Anaerobic digestion produces cleaner gas but is limited to livestock manure and industrial biomass waste. Advanced gasification achieved the highest energy conversion but is less developed than the other WtE technologies.