Small-scale Waste Heat Recovery through incineration – a brief review

Abstract

This paper brings a brief discussion about small-scale waste to energyunits, specificallyusing incineration. Solid waste treatment is an important issue around the world. Incineration has been applied successfullyin developed countries. In the south hemisphere landfills and dumps are still predominant.This study aims to show that there is a lack of small-scalewaste-to-energy(WtE) incineration plantsand one of the reasons is associated withthe high cost of the installations. The review performed showed that Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) has been applied in small-scale plants as atentative to reduce costs related to infrastructure required for electrical energy production. The airpollution controlprocess also has a huge impact onthis kind of installation.The lackof data and information about the operation of these plants turndifficult the study. Public policies to encourage small-scale waste energy recoveryare required to improve these techniques, especiallyin developing countries.