What happens to the toxic byproduct from burning the waste?
How is the energy harnessed, stored and ultimately used?
Why aren’t more countries doing this? Limitations?
Thanks
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There are plenty of drawbacks to the waste-to-energy process.
1. The “waste” has to be properly sorted, since not everything can just be incinerated. This takes time, money, and energy.
2. The vast majority of the waste energy releases carbon dioxide, so it’s no better than coal.
3. Transportation of physical material costs a lot, and since it’s not *nearly* as energy-dense as, say, coal, oil, nat gas, nuclear fuel, etc, the transportation costs are rather considerable.
4. It’s not reliable–if your energy source depends on a steady flow of trash, that sets up a whole lot of perverse incentives.
For the most part, garbage is burned, so the energy is coming from heat. There are carve-outs–some plastics can be broken down (and releases energy) and biomass can be harvested, but it’s mostly just heat.
That said, the *main* allure of this is that this is garbage that has to be gotten rid of anyway. Like #3 above is going to happen whether or not it’s being used for energy. It’s not particularly efficient or good as an energy source, but if it’s stuff we have to do anyway, why not at least get some energy out of it?
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