Waste collection and transportation is the major cause of fossil
fuel consumption. Compactor trucks are mainly used for waste
collection and transportation and the average loading capacity of a
truck is 4 tonnes/trip. According to Phuket Municipality, fossil fuel
consumption of the compactor trucks for collection and transportation
is 4.25 L diesel/tonne. In addition, diesel fuel is used to
enhance the initial combustion when re-starting the plant after
periodic maintenance (two times per year) and as a supplementary
energy source to maintain flue gas temperature. Total diesel fuel
consumption for these operational activities equivalent to 0.23 L
diesel/tonne. The plant has avoided utilising fossil-based conventional
electricity for the operational activities with 60% of the
electricity generated being used to operate the plant. The overall
effect on total fossil energy consumption for incineration amounted
to 3.89 kg crude oil-eq/tonne of waste. The remaining 40% of the
electricity generated (48 kWh/tonne of collected waste) is sold to
the grid, thereby avoiding virgin resource consumption (10.14 kg
crude oil-eq/tonne) that would have otherwise occurred from the corresponding amount of conventional electricity production.
Therefore, incineration contributed to net fossil resource savings,
which is indicated by a negative value (6.25 kg crude oil-eq/
tonne), see Fig. 6. Furthermore, incineration technology contributes
to significant energy savings as compared to BAU practice
(sanitary landfill without gas recovery). All in all incineration
technology has the potential to contribute to the growing renewable
energy demand in a carbon constrained world.