| |MAY 20238IN MY OPINIONIN MY OPINIONFROM WASTE TO ENERGY...NEW HOPE FOR EMERGING COUNTRIESBy Mohamed Tash, Energy Efficiency and Conservation General Manager, Egyptian Natural Gas CompanyAccording to The World Bank, in 2016, 2 billion tonnes of municipal solid wastes generated with 33 percent was not properly environmentally managed. Waste generation is one of the main phenomenon related to modern life, the average daily generation varies according to the level of income, the life style and the daily consumption habits. While in high income countries, the level could skyrockets to 4.5 kilograms, in low income countries, waste generation per capita daily could be 1.1 kilogram.Nevertheless, and regardless the income, waste generation quantities is expected to increase in the future, with levels nearly three times from now up to 2050.The Middle East, North Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa are regions which expect to see growing levels of waste generation.This surge in waste generation is due to three reasons, improving quality of life, increased population and rapid economic growth. If these high levels of waste generation are not monitored and controlled, they could pose several environmental threats ranged from accelerating the rate of climate change due to uncontrolled emissions of greenhouse gases, increased water pollution due to leachate from organic wastes and uncontrolled fires resulting from open dumps, which unfortunately is considered the main pathway of waste management in several countries in Africa.While waste generation may be considered an environmental threat, it may also be considered an opportunity to improve sustainable energy generation and utilisation in Africa. How is this possible? Energy is the main driving force for development all over the world and African countries need more energy that will supply these forms of developments such as infrastructure projects, manufacturing plants, and new cities that will contain millions of residents need safe, reliable, and sustainable source of energy. According to the annual World Energy Trilemma Index, issued by World Energy Council, which assesses the energy performance of countries, in terms of energy security, energy equity, and environmental sustainability, African countries ranked at least in the three measures. For sustainability, Benin, Niger, and Nigeria were ranked the least. Under energy equity, Niger, The DRC, Malawi, Madagascar, Mozambique, Benin, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Zambia, Senegal, and Mauritania are the least ranked. For energy security Niger, Benin, The DRC, Ethiopia, and Senegal are the least ranked.Waste to energy or WtE is one of the main strategies that could offer Africa an innovative approach to improve the three measures of energy trilemma index. WtE is a recovery process that converts generated waste into heat and electricity using conversion technologies and these technologies could be applied on several kinds of wastes, organic and inorganic, non-reusable and non-recyclable, waste materials.Several technologies could be deployed to convert waste to energy, of these technologies conventional incineration, pyrolysis, and gasification. WtE incineration is the process of continuous controlled burning of waste in the presence of oxygen at temperatures Mohamed Tash
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