A Holistic Review of Waste-to-Energy Multigeneration Systems for Biofuels and Co-Products

Waste-to-energy (WtE) systems are increasingly studies due to rising waste generation, limited landfill capacity, and demand for low carbon energy. Unlike single output systems, multigeneration systems convert biomass or waste into multiple products electricity, heat, cooling, hydrogen and biofuels. This review summarises recent techno-economic and environmental assessments of such systems focusing on integrated waste- and biomass-to-energy pathways. The literature shows a shift from simple waste-to-power systems towards highly integrated configurations combining gasification, combustion, pyrolysis and anaerobic digestions combined with bottoming cycles, fuel cells, refrigeration systems, fuel production and carbon capture. These systems improve resource utilisation and wate heat recovery but increase complexity and cost. Overall, multigeneration systems offer strong potential for improving efficiency and sustainability through process integration and product diversification. Future work should prioritise dynamic modelling under variable waste conditions, standardised techno-economic assumptions and improved integration of circular economy and supply chain considerations to ensure scalability and deployment.