The Energy from Waste Plants

Waste plants have certainly gained a lot of popularity as more people have discovered the many ways in which waste plants help generate electricity. Waste plants generate electricity, but waste plants may also generate heat, then used to produce steam that drives turbines for electricity generation.

How Do We Get the energy from waste plants?

Waste plants help generate electricity. To generate energy, these plants are set up in fields that burn waste, such as paper, cardboard, plastic, and metal. Waste incineration plants generate electricity by burning waste and transforming them into energy. These plants convert waste into energy through combustion to produce electricity.

Waste to energy (also referred to as EfW) is a waste management process that converts waste materials into useful energy. The EfW process requires waste, a process known as feedstock, which is achieved by placing waste in a facility and then burning it to produce steam which can then drive turbines to generate power. The steam can also be fed into a heat recovery steam generator (HRSG) to recover heat energy.

Waste plants are a fundamental part of every modern business, but it’s not uncommon to find businesses that rely on waste plants for their primary energy source in remote locations. Waste to Energy (WtE) or Energy from Waste (EfW) plants take the waste and create electricity. WtE plants take the waste and combust it to generate electricity, while EfW plants take the waste and convert it to fuel—in this case, electricity. However, in remote locations, waste plants aren’t cheap, and when something goes wrong, it can be an expensive problem to fix.

Does Australia have an operational EfW?

While Australia has banned EfW use, the Australian government recently announced its intention to transition to waste-to-energy (WtE) technologies. WtE technologies convert waste into a form of energy such as electricity. The Federal Government aims to have WtE facilities operating by the end of 2019, and the government has also committed to funding a feasibility study into constructing an EfW facility.