How to design an area-based prioritization of biogas production from organic municipal solid waste? Evidence from Thailand

Abstract

To properly manage municipal solid waste (MSW) and meet the country's biogas target, it is necessary for the government to prioritize their support to areas/provinces that have high resource potential. Therefore, this work designed a holistic approach for nationwide area-based organic MSW to biogas potential estimation. The total biogas power potential was ranged from 999 MW in 2021 to 1,652 MW in 2037. Moreover, priority setting on area-based biogas implementation was proposed, based on its resource potential to efficiently promote such technology. To achieve current biogas target of the country, the study identified 28% of national area coverage as priorities for actual execution, which could offset averagely 3% per year. To support design and planning purposes, an area with around 45,000 capita is recommended for developing 1 MW of MSW to biogas power plant using anaerobic digestion technology. The methodology development from this research revealed the link between resource potential and area-based prioritization framework that could be adopted in any growing economies to couple waste management with renewable energy production.

Keywords: Anaerobic digestion; Area-based biogas; Organic MSW; Prioritization; Thailand; Waste-to-energy.