Energy Generation from Solid Waste: A Literature Review

Energy generation from solid waste. A literature
review
Ivanhoe Rozo Rojas Laura Isabel Vásquez
Facultad de Ingeniería Facultad de Ingeniería
Universidad Católica de Colombia Universidad Católica de Colombia
[e-mail] [e-mail]
Abstract — The article presents a literature review about
energy generation based on solid waste exploitation. In recent
years, climate changes have affected the environment by the
human life-style. Engineering should facilitate transformation
processes of solid waste as energy and power generation source to
reduce the negative impacts by the high-level production.
Publication source was based on ScienceDirect® and Scopus®
and we realized a bibliometric data analysis in a timeline between
2013 to 2018 using original articles to identify research trends.
Some countries such as Malaysia, India, China and Norway have
demonstrated their interest on research and implementing new
energy generation options to decrease use and generation of fossil
energy. Implementation of efficient standards and technologies to
generate clean energy is required in the Colombian context. It is
recommended to contrast academic studies and government
studies to contrast points of view.
Keywords— Biomass, environmental impact, solid waste, power
generation, renewable energy.
I. I NTRODUCTION
Solid waste is constituted as those materials that are
discarded after their use or finished their useful life. Most of
these can be reused or they can be transformed to have a more
adequate management, for example, from the generation of
biomass from residues of the wood sector creating solid fuels.
Other types of biomass are biogas or bioethanol, which are
obtained with the treatment of organic waste [1]. However, in
Colombia and in some countries, it is not possible to have an
adequate use of these which directly affects the environment.
Given the climatic changes that occur in the planet as a result
of the lifestyle that has been carried out in recent years, it is
sought that from the engineering point of view different waste
transformation processes can be created in energy generating
sources. alternative to create solutions against the impacts that
are presented by the high levels of waste produced daily and
which do not have an adequate control and management.
Period of time from 2013 to 2014, Colombia increased the
generation of waste from 25,054 Ton / day to 26,528 Ton /
day respectively, according to the national report of the
Superintendencia de Servicios Públicos Domiciliarios. It is
also evident that more than 81% of these wastes are disposed
of in sanitary landfills and are not used for exploitation
compared to other countries where solid waste and biomass
are transformed into energy. [2]. According to Aryama
Raychaudhuria y Sadhan Kumar Ghosh [3], in countries such
as Malaysia, biomass is the energy source with the greatest
potential to preserve the environment. On the other hand, in
India most of the available biomass is used in rural households,
contributing 10.5% of the total generation which is 12.83% and
in Pakistan its power is biogas from biomass. The main objective
of this study is the projection of the potential use on the
generation and use of renewable energy from solid waste
considering the needs of creating "green" business opportunities
and solutions to the problem that afflicts the Colombian
populations.
II. METHODOLOGY
The methodology was structured in stages and activities as
follows:
A. Information sources
x Main information sources: We used information from
scientific articles and books that analyze the problem at
local, national and global level in problems of energy
generation using solid waste. The Science Direct and
Scopus databases were used for the acquisition of the
articles.
x Secondary sources of information: It was necessary to
have information from state and private entities such as
unions, associations, among others.
B. Search equation
Search equation used in the literature review includes three
parameters as follows:
The identification of the keywords, assemble the search
equations and the identification of the time window. First, we
identified the keywords (verified in the UNESCO Thesaurus)
with which the search equation was created “energy” AND
(“waste” OR “trash”) AND “biomass” AND (“management
waste” OR “renewable energy”) AND (“environment” AND
“sustainable”), that was typed in Science Direct and Scopus
to make a bibliometric analysis based on a period of time from
2013 to 2018 using Journal documents.
Therefore, an analysis of the documents was carried out
using the Vantage Point® software for the treatment of the
information obtained with the purpose of detecting
characteristics such as higher-trending words and categorization
of the information and, thus, selecting articles that had greater
relevance and impact in the framework of the literature review.
In this case, the trends that have a number greater than or equal
to 20 articles related to the keyword were taken.
978-1-5386-8131-2/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE

III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Using the search equation based on the criteria
mentioned in the methodology, 715 articles were obtained in the
ScienceDirect® database and 42 articles in Scopus® database.
Choosing the articles that achieve the purpose of the study were
selected 28 from Journal publication.
In graph 1 according to the Scopus® database it is
identified that the countries with the highest scientific
production are in this order: Malaysia (7), India (6), China (4),
Canada (3), Indonesia (3), United Kingdom (3), United States
(3), Australia (2), Nigeria (2) and South Africa (2), followed by
these countries are 11 more countries each with one (1) article
each to date.
Colombia is not included in the list of countries with the highest
scientific output on the subject. Malaysia has the largest number
of documents followed by India, where they have used these
publications where different cases are related in Malaysia. In the
case reported by [3] it is mentioned that biomass energy is the
greatest potential source to satisfy energy needs, for which the
government has introduced strategies to increase the emergence
and use of new renewable energies, "in the tenth plan from
Malaysia, a new goal of 985 MW was established to generate
electricity from renewable energy sources in 2015. "
Gráfica 1. Documentos por país
Fuente: Scopus (2013-2018)
According to Chart 1, India is the second country with
the highest scientific output of the research article type or
review article. In this country, 10.5% of the energy supplied
is renewable and 12.83% is generated from biomass, most of
the solid waste such as animal waste, wood and crop residues
are used in the mostly rural households [3].
India is one of the largest economies in the world and
approximately in its geography is one sixth of the world's
population which demands to consume large amounts of
energy, but in its real environment not all its inhabitants have
access to electricity. At this moment, India is one of the
countries whose objective is the modernization of the country
and to develop in various environmental aspects, for which
reason they carry out various investigations. In China,
mandatory regulations have been implemented in the energy
sector that led them to "almost half of the new global
electricity generation capacity installed in 2014
outside renewable "according to the International Energy
Agency, likewise they cite India, the second country of this
analysis" which focuses one of the in-depth studies of the
WEO-2015 (World Energy Outlook) which contributes with
the highest proportion of growth, around a quarter of the
world's energy demand "[4].
Due to the climatic changes that occur each time, it
has been shown that in recent years the search for different
solutions to global warming has increased and the serious
effects that this produces, we look for the decrease of the
causes of this phenomenon and as It is clear in this case that
we seek to find techniques for the transformation of solid
waste into renewable energy in exchange for fossil fuels.
According to the criteria established in the analysis
carried out in the Vantage Point® software, eight (8)
categories are obtained as shown in Figure 1.
Figura 1. Categorías de tendencias.
According to Figure 1, the categories with the highest
number of documents are: Renewable Energy (55), biomass
(44), biogas (34), bioenergy (30), Sustainability (29), energy
(25), cycle evaluation of life (25) and biodiesel (20). Figure 1
presents the trends with greater relevance and with specific
studies and techniques that are carried out in other countries.
It is evident that renewable energy is consistent with the
Biomass trend regarding the transformation of this where
different types of energy are generated in a sustainable and
renewable way, being beneficial for the environment. One of
the reported cases includes the generation of thermal energy
from biomass in Sri Lanka with the purpose of reducing fuel
costs and as a mitigation project for climate change [5]. In this
sense, the authors state that biomass can be transformed into
energy by applying different thermochemical and combustion
processes such as pyrolysis, with which better quality articles
can be produced in comparison with other thermochemical
conversion processes [6].
Trends towards renewable energies address the potential of
their use for the future in order to reduce greenhouse gas
emissions and impacts on human health and the environment.
The literature relates a case applied in Kazakhstan where
renewable energy resources are becoming an increasingly
attractive option to meet demand and generate energy in a
sustainable manner, considering pollution and the level of fossil
fuel consumption [7]. In Italy, an investigation was carried out
which is related to the Biomass, Sustainability and Biogas
categories, which seeks to contribute the energy problem from
renewable energy sources and related technologies in order to
satisfy the need of current consumption with environmental
implementations that help to save energy and the use of
renewable inputs [8], this would lead to a Sustainable Future
related to Renewable Energy where the economic, educational