A Case Study of Gasification CHP in Northern Italy in the European Context and Comparison to Traditional Combustion Systems

There are several technologies that recover energy from waste, but the term “waste-to-energy” specifically describes thermal treatment of municipal solid waste (MSW). The most common thermal treatment technology is incineration. In Italy, approximately 6 million tons of municipal solid waste are incinerated annually at waste-to-energy plants. This value has increased by almost 40% in the last decade, despite fewer plants in operation. As seen in Fig. 1 the total number of waste-to-energy plants has decreased from 49 to 44 during the last decade but this has not affected the treatment capacity as the total amount of waste has increased.