Epsilon Archive for Student Projects

Abstract

The thesis outlined in this report is a pre-feasibility study of the potential to use waste-to-energy
technology in the region Kutai Kartanegara, Borneo, Indonesia. The project is collaboration between
the Kutai Kartanegara government, Uppsala University, the Swedish University of agricultural
sciences and technology consultancy Sweco.
The current waste management system in Kutai Kartanegara consists of landfills in the cities and
open burnings and dumping in the lesser developed sub-districts. This is a growing problem both
environmentally and logistically. The electrification in the sub-districts is sometimes as low as 17 %
and access to electricity is often limited to a couple of hours per day. The current electricity
production in the region is mainly from fossil fuels.
Data was collected during a two month long field study in Tenggarong, the capital of Kutai
Kartanegara. From the collected data, various waste-to-energy systems and collection areas were
simulated in Matlab. Results from the simulations show that a system using both a waste incineration
and biogas plant would be the best solution for the region.
The chosen system is designed to handle a total of 250,000 tons of waste annually, collected from
Tenggarong and neighboring districts. The system will provide between 155 and 200 GWh electricity
and between 207 and 314 GWh of excess heat energy annually. Some of this is used in a district
heating system with an absorption-cooling machine. The system investment cost is around 42.5
MUSD and it is expected to generate an annual profit of 16 MUSD. The recommended solution will
decrease the emissions of CO2-equivalents compared to the current waste system and fossil
electricity production with 50%. The results in the study clearly show that there are both economic
and environmental potential for waste-to-energy technologies in the region. But the waste
management and infrastructure has to be improved to be able to utilize these technologies.
By implementing waste-to-energy technologies, the supplied waste can be seen as a resource instead
of a problem. This would give incentives for further actions and investments regarding waste management.