This compendium to the Waste to Energy in the Age of the Circular Economy Handbook outlines

waste-to-energy project implementations with background, technology, financing, operations, and lessons learned.

These projects start with a large municipal solid waste plant reducing unsorted waste, and progress

through smaller distributed solutions that reduce components of the waste or process the waste to

capture the energy contained.

Distributed business models to recycle and upcycle waste components using intermediate fuel

technologies—including refuse derived fuels, biogas, biomethane, and syngas—are presented. The use of distributed gasification and pyrolysis is also demonstrated at the distributed scale. These upcycling activities reduce the required capacity for end-of-life facilities.

Models from India and the People’s Republic of China are presented, showing smaller communities removing the need for end-of-life facilities.

A range of developing technologies in commercialization are presented in the second section. Readers should be aware of the technology readiness levels of a particular technology. The technology readiness level should be considered when committing to a particular technology.