title: Feasibility analysis of municipal solid waste mass burning in the Region of East Macedonia--Thrace in Greece.
abstract: The present work conducts a preliminary techno-economic feasibility study for a single municipal solid waste mass burning to an electricity plant for the total municipal solid waste potential of the Region of Eastern Macedonia - Thrace, in Greece. For a certain applied and highly efficient technology and an installed capacity of 400,000 t of municipal solid waste per year, the available electrical power to grid would be approximately 260 GWh per year (overall plant efficiency 20.5% of the lower heating value). The investment for such a plant was estimated at €200m. Taking into account that 37.9% of the municipal solid waste lower heating value can be attributed to their renewable fractions, and Greek Law 3851/2010, which transposes Directive 2009/28/EC for Renewable Energy Sources, the price of the generated electricity was calculated at €53.19/MWhe. Under these conditions, the economic feasibility of such an investment depends crucially on the imposed gate fees. Thus, in the gate fee range of 50-110 € t(-1), the internal rate of return increases from 5% to above 15%, whereas the corresponding pay-out time periods decrease from 11 to about 4 years.
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Engineering, Democritus University of Thrace, Xanthi, Greece kathan@env.duth.gr.
authors.forename: C J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Athanasiou
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Engineering, Democritus University of Thrace, Xanthi, Greece.
authors.forename: D A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Tsalkidis
authors.affiliation: Earth Engineering Center, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Kalogirou
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Engineering, Democritus University of Thrace, Xanthi, Greece.
authors.forename: E A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Voudrias
mesh_terms: D004736:Energy-Generating Resources / Q000191:economics*; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D006115:Greece; D017745:Incineration / Q000191:economics* / Q000295:instrumentation*; D011210:Power Plants / Q000191:economics / Q000295:instrumentation; D062611:Solid Waste / Q000032:analysis*
chemical_list: D062611:Solid Waste
keywords: Municipal solid waste; economic feasibility; incineration gate fee; mass burning to electricity; waste to energy