Assessing Applicability of Technologjes for Waste to Energy in Developing Asian Cities <Articles>

High economic growth in developing Asian countries (DACs) has evoked pressure on natural resource utilization and generated excessive amount of waste. Parallel with changes in waste generation and continuing dependency on landfill as final waste treatment option, has increased potential of methane release which caused direct impact on greenhouse gases (GHGs) emission density. There is an emerging need in DACs to have an alternative waste treatment option that can provide two fold benefits of wise use of biomass waste and reduce GHG emissions. This study tends to assess the applicability of waste to energy technologies from Japan to be introduced for implementation in DACs. Commercialization interest was observed earlier to see the tendency of Japan's involvement in technology transfer. Eventhough there was a high rate in transferring biogas technology, but only 10% of it was a converted energy from animal biomass and none utilizing municipal solid waste (MSW). Furthermore, available technologies were evaluated based on cost, technology level and resource recovery indication. Based on collected qualitative data, result had shown that biogas technology was most applicable and commercially available than others. To reduce the implementation barrier, the most suitable approach was proposed. It was suggested that decentralized, networked but top-down approach will be the best option to enhance technology transfer from Japan.