to read the full report - Ecolateral by Peter Jones

Evaluation of Opportunities for Converting Indigenous UK Wastes to Wastes and Energy
AEA/ED45551/Issue 1
As is demonstrated by the above examples, in terms of thermal treatment of waste Japan, has a wellestablished
system in place. Now the agenda has begun to shift towards the generation of energy as well
as waste minimisation, Japan is one of the leading countries in terms of technology development and has
the largest number of plants in operation that use thermal conversion techniques to treat waste and
recover energy.
10.3 Conclusions
From this review the following conclusions can be drawn;
• Combustion, gasification and pyrolysis all use heat to break down the structure of the feedstock
so that the chemical energy can be released either as heat or a fuel product. The conditions in
the reactor determine the products.
• Gasification technologies are being developed but often encounter severe technical difficulties
when attempting the step of using the gas for power generation in an engine or gas turbine.
• The robust approach of firing the gas in a boiler is proving reliable and a worthwhile innovation.
These units can be produced in smaller sizes than conventional incineration and can be matched
to heat loads in CHP and process heating applications to give potentially the best GHG
abatement potential.
• Gasification as a pre-treatment is likely to become more popular in cofiring as generators seek to
increase the proportion of biomass in coal fired utility boilers.
• There are few commercial pyrolysis plant operating on waste.
• The technologies available for conversion of waste to heat and power are more widespread than
those for conversion to transport fuels, although work is ongoing on advanced conversion for
liquid biofuels.
• The use of gasification at very large scale for the production of transport fuels or pipeline
methane is attracting increasing attention and is potentially an efficient use of resources.
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