MSW`s Response to Climate Change

The rapid growth of wind and solar power production installations worldwide has not been coupled with similar rates of integration in the electrical grid. This study proposes the conversion of agricultural residues into biocoal by means of frictional pyrolysis, which is a novel power-to-fuel technology that converts directly electricity into mechanical work and uses no additional heat. The excess renewable energy, that otherwise would be lost, will be utilized for converting agricultural residues into biocoal. This novel concept is defined as the concept of the renewable battery. A case study is presented for the State of California and three characteristic biomass types have been analyzed and converted into biocoal. The analysis showed that, between the years 2007–2016, the wind power installations have increased by 242.37% and the majority of solar PV were installed which account for 17,238 GWh. From the initial energy input of the biomass, the energy that was converted and stored in the form of biocoal ranged from 78.6% to 86.8%. The concept of renewable battery promotes carbon sequestration in agricultural practices and serves as a cleaner and renewable fuel that can be co-combusted with coal.

During the 7th International Conference on Sustainable Solid Waste Management in Heraklion Global WtERT Council members from Greece, France, Italy, Germany, Colombia, Chile and USA met with guests from Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Singapore and Greece as well as Antonis Mavropoulos from ISWA to discuss, how to start the WtERT Crowd Sourcing Campaign "Waste Management´s Response to Climate Change”.

Managing the municipal solid waste (MSW) is a task that requires the combination of multiple strategies in order to follow the concept of circular economy. Waste-to-Energy (WtE) plants are producing electricity and heat but also have other byproducts that need to be disposed or can be reused. The standard method for assessing the WtE plants is the utilization of the R1 formula. The R1 formula has several limitations and is not able to integrate more parameters like the recovery of metals. The integration of the climate correction factor can improve the R1 up to 1.25 times but this factor is related to the Heating Degree Days, which is a rapidly declining value due to climate change. Contrary to the R1 Formula, the 3T Method is a novel method that can take into consideration all the range of products like syngas and biooil in a thermodynamically consistent way. These two methods were used to analyze three characteristic incineration plants and two gasification plants and this is the first time that this comparison is being presented. The results showed that the two methods have different ranges of returned values, with the R1 returning values (usually) between 0.5 and 1.1 and the 3T method returning values between 0.2 and 0.3. The 3T method on the one hand promotes high electrical efficiencies, i.e. 3T values approach the 0.3 mark for 30% electrical efficiency, and on the other hand promotes polygeneration where the recovery of char and metals can elevate the 3T value well above the 0.3 level for only 15% electrical efficiency and 70% metal recovery.

On 15 and 16 June, Commissioner for Climate Action and Energy Miguel Arias Cañete and Commissioner for Environment, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Karmenu Vella will attend the G20 Energy and Environment Ministerial meeting, which takes place in Karuizawa, Japan. The first ever G20 ministerial meeting on environment-related topics will focus on how to respond together to global challenges of marine plastic litter, climate change, energy efficiency improvements, further deployment of renewables and the role of finance in fostering the transition to clean energy technologies.

Today, the Meseberg Climate Working Group met in Berlin. It is the second meeting of the Franco-German group, bringing together all ministries dealing with climate change measures under the lead of Climate State Secretaries Brune Poirson (FRA) and Jochen Flasbarth (DEU). The close collaboration across sectors responds to the mandate given by President Macron and Chancellor Merkel in June 2018 at Meseberg.

A report by Ecologic Institute and Climact shows that the draft National Energy and Climate Plans presented by governments at the start of 2019 are in acute need of improvement. They suffer from inadequate targets and insufficient details on the policies and financing needed to move towards net-zero emission economies in Europe. Member States also need to do better in involving their national stakeholders in providing input to the plans, to benefit from their expertise and to get them on board for future policies. Good practice examples exist around the EU to serve as inspiration for the final plans due by the end of the year.