Bioorganic Municipal Waste Management to Deploy a Sustainable ...

第 6 卷第 2 期 过 程 工 程 学 报 Vol.6 No.2
2006 年 4 月 The Chinese Journal of Process Engineering Apr. 2006
Bioorganic Municipal Waste Management to Deploy a Sustainable
Solid Waste Disposal Practice in China
Bernhard Raninger 1 , Werner Bidlingmaier 2 , LI Run-dong(李润东) 3 , FENG Lei(冯磊) 3
[1. Mining University Leoben, A–8700, Leoben, Austria; CIM, D- 60325 Frankfurt am Main, Germany;
2. Int. Transfer Center Environ. Technol., Inst. at Bauhaus Univ. Weimar, Weimar D-99423, Germany;
3. Inst. Clean Energy & Environ. Eng. (ICEEE), Hangkong University, Shenyang, Liaoning 110034, China]
Abstract: The utilization of bioorganic municipal waste (BMW) is considered essentially for the further development of
integrated waste management practice in China. Awareness and knowledge about the importance of BMW management and
source separation of waste on household level, as a precondition for the implementation of an economically feasible integrated
waste management infrastructure, were developed in Europe during the last decade. The Sino–German RRU−BMW Project is
facilitating applied research investigations in 4 pilot areas in Shenyang to assess the population’s behavior to develop the
design criteria for appropriate process technologies and to provide the basis to adopt BMW management policy in China.
Keywords: bioorganic municipal waste; bioorganic municipal waste management; sustainable development; primary source
separation; clean compost; biogas
CLC No.: X705 Document Code: A Article ID: 1009−606X(2006)02−0255−06
1 INTRODUCTION
In China in 2003, 146 million metric tons of
municipal solid waste (MSW) were collected in 660
cities from about 338 million citizens (26% of China's
total population) with a clearly increasing tendency. For
example, Shanghai is gathering 16000 t of MSW daily
and in Shenyang the amount is about 5000 t/d. All over
the country about 80% of the collected MSW is disposed
off in low standard dumping sites without prior
processing or any other measures to lessen the
environmental impact. This leads to local and even
global ecological threads, caused by leachate and landfill
gas emissions (approximately 3% of global
anthropogenic CH4 emissions are deriving from MSW
landfills contributing to climate change).
The specific MSW production in China is related to
0.8~1 kg/(capita . d) [or about 300 kg/(capita . a)]. In China
in 2003 there are 574 solid waste treatment plants and
engineered disposal sites in operation. These facilities
have a total capacity of 73 Mt/a (219000 t/d)
corresponding to a treatment rate of 49.7% of total waste
collected. The course of waste collection and treatment
capacities is shown in Fig.1. It is estimated that these
figures represent only about 40% of the MSW produced
all over China.
Half of the dumped waste is disposed in ‘controlled’
landfills, from which a small number (such as in Beijing,
Wuhan, Wuxi, Xi'an, Guangzhou) is dealt with in an
operating landfill gas recovery system. The Chinese
government is facing the rising burden to collect and
dispose waste by cost-intensive landfilling in
increasingly far distance suburban areas. According to
MSW analysis all over China 60%~80% of the content is
bioorganic municipal waste (BMW), which is mainly
causing the problems during landfilling (see Fig.2).
160
140
120
100
80
60
40
20
Quantity of MSW collected (mln.t)
Quantity of MSW treated (ha.t)
0
1979 1983 1987 1991
Year
1995 1999 2003
Fig.1 MSW collection and controlled disposal in China from
1979 to 2003 (source: ESETRC-MOC)
About 7% of the collected MSW is incinerated, (e.g.
in Shanghai, Beijing and Shenzhen) but these facilities
are working inefficiently due to the high content of
organic waste (BMW). The incineration plants are fed
with low calorific MSW, and till 2005 still more MSW
thermal treatment plants are going to be built (such as in
Received date: 2005–10–11; Accepted date: 2005–12–23
Biography: Habil Bernhard Raninger(1952−), male, Leoben, Austria, doctor, professor, research on biotechnological solid waste treatment and management.
Amounts in million tons

256 过 程 工 程 学 报 第 6 卷
Guangzhou, Amoy, Jinjiang, Wenzhou, Huizhou,
Kunshan, Puyang, Shijiazhuang and Suzhou). Another
5% of MSW is treated in mixed waste composting
plants [1] , and more of such facilities are still going to be
built, though the ‘output material’ can not be used due to
quality problems [2] .
Chinese authorities have the unanimous opinion
that the residents are not able to separate the waste at the
source (as in Europe) and they rely on future
technologies to separate the waste by technological
means. The technologies to separate ‘mixed waste' into
useable materials do not exist, and attempts in these
Bioorganic fraction (BMW) Shenyang % 75.3%
Textile 1.7%
Wood/bamoo 1.4%
Paper 0.1%
Packages/plastics 10.6%
Glass 1.4%
Metal 0.4%
Minerals 0.5%
Hazardous household waste 0.6%
Complex products 2.5%
Others (diapers,.) 2%
Fines fraction mainly BMW 3.3%
directions have already failed in the western countries in
the 1980s (Germany, France and Austria). The
‘contribution of the general public’ by separating their
waste at the source, at least in bioorganic ‘wet waste’ and
in ‘dry waste’, is required. Both fractions can be further
treated technologically to achieve material and energy
recovery. This collection is the state of the art in all
ecologically oriented industrialised countries and is
required to implement a cost-effective and
economy-relevant waste treatment system, which
complies with the objectives of recycling economy [3] .
Fig.2 MSW compositions of the samples in March/April, 2005 [78.6%(ω) bioorganic material] in 4 pilot areas
(with gas supply) in Shenyang and Heng County, Guangxi in 2004 (81.1%, ω) [4,5]
2 BMWM IN EUROPE
To tackle the local and global pollution from BMW
disposal Europe has applied a specific biological waste
management (BMWM) policy to lessen the negative
environmental impact by preventing biodegradable
material being disposed of at landfill sites (see EU
Directive on Land Filling of Waste, CD1999/31/EC 1999
and the related national legislations) and based on this
the European countries have developed their own
‘bioorganic municipal waste strategy’ [3,5,6] . Pollution
from landfills is mainly caused by bioorganic waste
components. One ton of mixed solid waste is producing
in total about 300 m 3 biogas, containing 55%~65% of
CH4 during the entire landfill duration. From a global
point of view, landfill gas (LFG) is one of the
anthropogenic sources of green house gases (GHG).
According to International Panel on Climate Change
(IPCC) 1995 the waste disposal sector is 5.9% of the
main sources of GHG emissions. Between the years from
1800 to 1993 the CH4 concentration in the atmosphere
has increased from 0.8 to 1.89 ppm and this process is
further ongoing.
If LFG or biogas (BG) is used to substitute fossil
energy, renewable CO2 will replace fossil CO2.
Therefore European countries are emphasising treating
BMW as a priority issue within their waste management
Bioorganic fraction (BMW) Heng 81.1%
Wood 2.1%
Textile 4.6%
Paper 8.9%
Packages/plastics 1.4%
Metal 1.5%
Minerals 0.3%
Hazardous household waste 0.1%
policies. The waste management hierarchy of
reduction/avoidance, recycling (including composting),
treatment (incineration or mechanical−biological
stabilization) and landfilling has been adopted
throughout Europe. Governments had achieved the target
of 50% recovery rate by 2000, and in 2004 many
countries were already far beyond this target. Biological
and mechanical−biological waste treatment (MBT) is
becoming more and more a key player in meeting
national recovery goals, especially as the organic fraction
of the household waste stream can be up to 50% or more
in some countries. A strong impact derives from the ‘EU
landfill directive’ and its main implications to reduce
BMW by 65% by 2016. Several EU countries have
enforced the targets in reducing landfilling of bioorganic
waste [e.g. >3%(ω) DM TOC in German in July 2005,
obligatory, 5%(ω) DM ignition loss in Austria since
2004 and the collection of BMW on a legal basis in
Austria since 1993] far beyond these thresholds. One of
the reasons why BMWM within an overall integrated
waste management system was successfully developed
in EU was the cost-effectiveness. Biotechnological waste
treatment of source-separated waste, even on a high
technological standard (including RTO flew gas cleaning
in Germany, high requirements on the output materials)
is simply less costly compared to thermal treatment.

第 2 期 Bernhard Raninger, et al.: Bioorganic Municipal Waste Management to Deploy a Sustainable Solid Waste Disposal Practice in China 257
3 CHINESE PILOT ACTIVITIES ON
SOURCE SEPARATION OF BMW
The ability of Chinese to carry out separation of
waste at the source by a 3-bin system: BMW, Recycling
Material and Remaining Waste (RMW) was proved
during pilot tests in Shenyang (RRU−BMW Project) and
in Heng County, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.
These pilot activities have shown that the Chinese
residents are motivated and able to participate in source
separation activities. Another pilot test on BMW source
separation was recently done by Hefei University in
Anhui.
3.1 The Guangxi Pilot Project
The Environmental and Sanitation Department in
Heng County has started first source separation activities
(2-bin system) in 2000. Till now the collection was
extended to 13000 households, restaurants, schools,
vegetable markets, small enterprises and governmental
departments. 81% of the organic waste is collected,
recovered and converted into ‘clean compost’ at a
composting plant with an annual capacity of 7000 t/a. An
opinion research with 6650 participants has shown that
87% are satisfied and only 7% are not happy with BMW
separation activities [4] .
3.2 The Shenyang RRU-BMW Pilot Project on
Waste Source Separation
The Sino−German Cooperation Research Project on
‘Resource Recovery and Utilization of Bioorganic
Municipal Waste (RRU-BMW)’ in Shenyang, supported
by German partners, University of Weimar, Schaefer
Company and Brendebach Consultants, Austrian RAB,
Liaoning Science and Research Bureau, SYIAE and
Liaoning Environmental Protection Volunteers
Association (Green Liaoning) is aiming to assess the
possibilities to apply the approach of biotechnological
processing of source-separated BMW with an integrated
waste management concept. The objectives are:
� To implement BMW collection in 5 pilot areas in
2 Shenyang districts (app. 1000 people);
� To assess the quantities and qualities of BMW
generated by 2 different ways of collection;
� To investigate the compositions of MSW and
RMW (Regulated Medical Waste) by waste
sorting and laboratory analysis;
� To analyse the aerobic biodegradability and
compost quality (laboratory scale composting);
� To operate a pilot anaerobic laboratory scale
biogas fermenter to assess the specific gas yield
and gas quality generated from BMW;
� To develop a communication strategy and carry
out an opinion research to investigate the attitude
of citizens towards source separation of BMW;
� To make recommendations for an appropriate
BMW treatment technology.
3.3 The Communication Strategy
To communicate the benefits of BMWM with the
authorities, opinion leaders and decision makers from
provincial to community levels and to approach the
households participating in the project, the following
communication tools have been employed:
� Poster (A2, colour print), announcing the pilot
project in Shenyang;
� Information leaflet (A4, colour print) providing
the background information and project
introduction to the participants, supportive
statements provided by public authorities and
institutions involved, for all project participants,
stakeholders and general information;
� Information meetings for public authorities and
institutions involved, presentation of project
purpose, expected results,
� Authorisation document signed by the SYIAE
and the Residential Community Management
Offices to enable the project staff to approach the
households;
� Invitation to the information meetings for each of
the 4 pilot areas and information meetings at the
spot, presentations and discussions, distribution
of information material, 7 L bio-waste bins,
RMW bins and numbered waste bags;
� Information leaflet on how to carry out source
separation and to use the new facilities;
� Telephone help line at ICEEE and Green
Liaoning/LN-EPB;
� Opinion survey during the information meetings,
and with the general public not involved in the
project and with project participants after project
completion;
� Mass media: LNTV-1, SY-TV, SY Economic
Radio Station, Liaoning Daily, SY Today;
� Following up communication with those
households which do not participate properly;
� Display of project results in the pilot areas
(wallpapers) and awarding of most successful
households in 4 pilot areas (e.g. June 5, ‘World
Environmental Day’);
� Publication of results by interim reports to
authorities and institutions involved, and the
wider sector stakeholders in China and Germany;
� Scientific publications in China and worldwide.

258 过 程 工 程 学 报 第 6 卷
3.4 Opinion Research
The project participants in the pilot areas had to fill
a questionnaire prior to the participation in the source
separation activity. During the start-up phase of the
project 453 valid questionnaires were returned, from
which the following main conclusions can be drawn:
86% of the participants are willing to participate
actively in source separation activities and only 2.5% say
a clear ‘no’. ‘Primary source separation (PSS)’ is seen to
be useful by 64%, instead of separation done by
community workers, secondary source separation (SSS)
(12.6%) and 23% suppose that a waste treatment plant
can do the job. 28% have the judgment that the low
recycling rates in Shenyang are due to lacking the
facilities (waste bins) and 30% believe that the awareness
of the population is too low. As most relevant supporting
tools 40% see the establishment of an appropriate waste
bin system and 40% see general governmental support as
required. 18% of the participants in the pilot areas want
the government to implement more supporting policies
but the enforcement of a compulsory system combined
with possible penalties is only acceptable to 5%. 28% see
it necessary to have the bio-waste bin in the household,
13% perceive it as appropriate to develop BMW source
separation step by step with the development of the
Table 1 Specification of the pilot areas in Shenyang city, 2005
conditions and 23% would like to leave the beginning of
these activities to public institutions such as universities
and advanced residential areas. 55% of the target group
want to have the source separated biowaste collection on
a daily basis (as now the MSW), 36% agree to every
second day and only 10% believe that every third day is
acceptable for emptying the tons. From all obtainable
waste disposal techniques (landfilling 19%, incineration
11%, other techniques 7%), biowaste treatment is with
63% favoured.
3.5 RRU−BMW Pilot Areas in Shenyang
The criteria to select the pilot areas jointly with the
Green Liaoning, LN-EBP, the district EPBs and
construction bureaus include: different social levels,
management principals (collection indicated by the
project and a private company), geographical satiations
in Shenyang and different collection approaches.
The collection methodologies are: (1) ‘primary
source separation (PSS)’ = separation of BMW at the
households and (2) mixed waste collection and
‘secondary source separation (SSS)’ = separation of
BMW by workers out of the mixed waste delivered by
the households at the courtyard (proposed by the public
authorities as most feasible solution).
Name of District in Number HHs HH Number of Living Collection
Comments/approach
pilot area Shenyang of HHs taking part (%) persons standard system
Beifang Yi Yuan 60 60 100 155 2 bins, PSS Two multi-storage buildings selected
Dong You
Ming Lian
Huanggu
60
200
60
*
100
*
180
600
Middle
1 bin, SSS
3 bins, PSS
Two multi-storage buildings selected
Voluntary households selected
To be operated by Yong Jie Ltd.
Van Ke
Quan Yuan
Dongling
50
63
43
63
84
100
143
207
High
Low
3 bins, PSS
2 bins, PSS
3 buildings selected, previous LN
Recycling Demo. Project, 9 000 pop.
Households in 4 buildings selected,
15 000 pop., largest community in SY
Total 433 226 96 1285
Note: * Could not be started by the private partner; HH = household.
4 BMW QUANTITY AND QUALITY
The BMW recovered and collected by primary
source separation during the first 34 weeks of the project
from 505 persons (97% participation) from PSS amounts
to 77 kg/(capita . a) and year or 83%(ω), which is more
than 61 kg/(capita . a) investigated 2004 during a
preliminary test with 10 households. The content of
ballast matter of the primary source separated BMW is
2.7%(ω), more than that from secondary source
separated BMW (1.6%, ω). The contamination of
secondary source separated BMW with trace pollutants
(heavy metals) was clearly increased as investigated
during the project. RMW amounts to 17% in the PSSS
and to 24% in the PSS area.
Table 2 RRU-BMW source separation results after 34 weeks of project implementation in 2005
14/03∼16/11 (238 d) Participants
BMW
(kg)
Non-BMW
(%)
RMW
(kg)
MSW
(kg)
BMW
[kg/(capita . a)]
MSW
[kg/(capita . a)]
Beifang Yiyuan (PSS) 155 9 551 2.1 1 938 11 489 94 114
Van Ke (PSS) 143 6 283 3.4 918 7 201 67 77
QuanYuan (PSS) 207 9 523 2.7 2 200 11724 71 87
Dong You (SSS) 180 8 358 1.6 2 746 10904 70 93
Total 685 33 715 (82%) 2.5 7 802 (18%) 41318 (100%) 76 93

第 2 期 Bernhard Raninger, et al.: Bioorganic Municipal Waste Management to Deploy a Sustainable Solid Waste Disposal Practice in China 259
Fig.3 Aerobic (composting modules including biofilter) and anaerobic biodegradability test equipment of BMW in the ICEEE Laboratory
4.1 Biodegradability of BMW
The biodegradability of the collected BMW is
analysed in the ICEEE laboratory (see Fig.3). The
composting modules to measure the aerobic
biodegradability are equipped with controlled forced
aeration, temperature and CO2/O2 control, bio-filter and
leachate collection and re-circulation.
The effect on the bio-degradation of the feedstock
material [50%(ϕ) BMW and 50%(ϕ) grinded Mays straw]
during 3 weeks is shown in Fig.4. The main difficulty of
Fresh matter mass balance (%)
100%
80%
60%
40%
20%
0%
-34.7 %
[ash]% [OS]% [H2O]%
-46.9 %
-52.7 %
Start Week1 Week2 Week3
aerobic treatment is the loss of material stability
(structure) and therefore an increase of density during the
microbiological degradation process, which either
demands the use of at least 50%(ϕ) structure material
(which would be a cost factor at the later practical
application) or requires an anaerobic treatment prior
composting. The biogas production potential of BMW
from all 4 areas with up to 620∼720 m 3 /t VSBMW
feedstock was found to be at the upper expected range [5, 7] .
Fig.4 Aerobic biodegradability tests of BMW over 3 weeks (500 h) composting duration (80% BMW, 20% straw in May),
fresh matter mass balance (%, ω), course of temperature and air flow
4.2 Quantity and Composition of RMW
The quantity of RMW collected amounts to 18%(ω)
in the average of the waste collected from the pilot
households. Though RMW contains still about
20%~45% of bioorganic matter (mainly paper tissues,
organic kitchen waste) [5] , the calorific value of RMW has
increased from 3650 kJ/kg FM (MSW) to 16446 kJ/kg,
and a thermal utilisation of this fraction is getting now
appropriate and a stabile incineration process including
energy recovery will be ensured.
The total quantity of BMW and RMW collected is
93 kg/(capita . a) [up to 114 kg/(capita . a)] below the total
average annual MSW per capita amount of about 300 kg.
This amount includes about 15% [45 kg/(capita . a)]
recycled materials (merchandised paper, cardboards, PE,
PET, glass, metals) and other non-household born MSW
from public and commercial sources (markets, roads).
Temperature (℃)
70
60
50
40
30
Ambient temp.
T3
T (avr)
20
20
10
T1
T5
Air flow
10
0
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350
0
400
Composting time (h)
5 ECONOMIC CONSIDERATION
In 2002 the National Development and Planning
Commission (NDPC), Ministry of Finance (MOF),
Ministry of Construction (MOC), and State
Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA)
released the Announcement No.872, Practicing Charging
System of Municipal Solid Waste Treatment and
Promoting Industrialization of Waste Treatment [7] .
Based on this, some municipalities have started certain
attempts to improve waste treatment and to introduce
waste disposal charging system models, though the
implementation is clearly behind schedule. The waste
fees introduced by the communities should be based on
the PPP (polluter pays principle) and full cost covering in
order to make the required infrastructure investments
sustainable and the economic implications of alternative
waste treatment scenarios (incineration versus industrial
70
60
50
40
30
Zuluft [m 3 /(h·m 3 )]

260 过 程 工 程 学 报 第 6 卷
co-incineration, engineered landfilling versus
biotechnological BMW recovery, and their combination
within integrated concepts transparent and cost effective.
Fig.5 displays the estimated effect of different scenarios
on the waste fees, showing the effect that even high
investment solutions can be operated at lower operation
costs levels. To induce waste avoidance by behaviour
and participation of the public it is proposed to collect the
waste fees from the residential communities (RC).
Therefore depending whether a RC performs for
example well in separation of recyclable materials
(packaging and BMW), and in minimising mixed waste,
the total fee for waste disposal will clearly decrease and
the residents will have to pay less. In this case there is a
relation between the behaviour of the people living in a
residential community and the fees they have to pay for.
Waste minimisation is stimulated and PPP is applied
(similar to the current system of heating and water fees).
¥
25
20
15
10
5
LF
Technical LF
0
Fig.5 Estimated waste fees (per month and capita) to cover the
future disposal costs in Shenyang under different scenarios
[current landfilling (LF) practice, improved LF practice
including after care costs (technical LF), thermal MSW
treatment (TT), and integrated waste management approach
including BMW treatment, thermal utilisation of remaining
waste/RDF, increased recycling and minimised landfilling]
6 CONCLUSIONS
Source separation of bioorganic waste is seen as an
essential tool to further develop waste management
practice in China. With this approach the related
European policy is followed, further contribution is made
to the Chinese policies on ‘reducing green house gases’,
‘applying circular economy’ and ‘employing renewable
energy’. The ability of the population to carry out source
separation of BMW (a key argument whether going into
this direction or not) is in the meantime proven several
times under different scenarios, and the public feedback
to introduce waste separation is positive. The participants
start to mobilise the public media and the local
authorities to promote this approach and to extend the
pilot areas. Following EU’s experience an ongoing
TT
Integrated
BT, TT, RE, LF
visible support of the government over some years is
required to adopt such new practice into the daily
people’s behaviour. Within this campaign, besides of
ecological aspects, the positive effect on the future
development of waste disposal fees has to be
communicated and waste fees systems have to be
developed under consideration of the PPP (polluter pays
principle). Due to the composition of BMW collected in
Chinese cities the combined production of biogas
(renewable energy) and ‘clean compost’ are
recommended. In order to improve waste management in
urban areas the implementation of a demonstration
‘BMW anaerobic fermentation, composting and thermal
utilisation of residual waste plant’ should be considered.
A plant with a capacity of 100000 t/a can treat the BMW
from about 1 million people. Under consideration of the
financial benefits from CDM mechanism (CO2 emission
trading), from electricity (surplus at least between 1.5~2
MW), 5 MW heat for space heating and from compost
utilisation, within less than 5 years 50% of the
investment costs can be gained. The replacement of
fossil CO2 by using the biogas is related to 700000 trees.
The ongoing investigations under the RRU−BMW
project will contribute to build up a solid basis to employ
BMWM in China and it is anticipated to attract more
international support to further facilitate this approach
and to run full scale pilot projects.
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