The Global Waste To Energy Market Size Was Valued At USD 32.15 Billion In 2021. The Market Is Projected To Grow From USD 33.28 Billion In 2022 To USD 44.62 Billion By 2030, Exhibiting A CAGR Of 4.3% During The Forecast Period.

Waste to Energy Market Overview:

The global COVID-19 pandemic has been unprecedented and shocking. Demand for waste to energy has been lower than expected in all areas compared to levels before the pandemic. Based on our research, the global market dropped by 2.8% between 2019 and 2020.

Waste to Energy (WtE), also called "energy from waste," uses thermochemical and biochemical technologies to get energy from urban waste and turn it into electricity, steam, and fuels. Depending on how the outputs are made and used, these new technologies can cut the amount of waste by 90%. WtE plants offer two important benefits: safe ways to manage and get rid of waste and clean ways to make electricity. WtE is being used more and more to get rid of solid and liquid wastes and make electricity. This has greatly reduced the negative effects of municipal solid waste management on the environment, such as greenhouse gas emissions.

Market Dynamics:

Latest Trends:

Because of strict government policies about rising greenhouse gas emissions, green technology has been developed to make clean energy. As a supplement to the use of WtE technologies, governments all over the world are investing in renewable energy sources to reduce their reliance on fossil fuels. Also, programs and incentives have been set up in all areas to encourage effective waste collection and processing. This creates a lot of growth potential for the waste-to-energy industry because it could help start up the right technology for making energy. For example, the gold standard of best practise is to make streams of trash that are all the same and have been sorted at the source. This makes it possible for recycling and up cycling activities to be spread out.

So, digitizing waste collection and trading these sorted materials makes it possible for more people in the community to help with waste collection. For example, waste management facilities with a Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) and Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) monitoring system can be automatically monitored and controlled from a central control station to ensure efficiency and minimise the amount of manual work needed. So, using digital technologies to collect and get rid of waste will not only give information, but it will also improve the quality of data and give better insights into a waste stream while processes are going on.

Driving Factors:

Market growth is driven by more waste being turned into clean energy.

Increasing industrialization and urbanisation, along with economic growth, lead to more waste, threats to the environment, and CO2 emissions. With global changes in how people live, there has also been a big rise in commercial and residential waste. Waste-to-energy has a place in the transition to a sustainable energy ecosystem. It can be used as an energy source to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, a clean demand response option, a design consideration for eco-industrial parks, and sometimes the only option for treating waste at the end of its life.

Also, one of the most important things driving the global market is the rising demand for energy around the world, which is caused by things like a growing population, rapid industrialization, and growing cities. For example, the Asian Development Bank's WtE circular research report says that by 2050, economic growth, population growth, and more people living in cities will cause the amount of waste from municipal waste to reach 3.4 billion tons. So, a lot of money is being put into projects to reduce environmental problems and waste, which is good for the waste-to-energy industry because it can grow. For example, Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam, set a goal in July 2022 to turn at least 80% of its solid waste into energy by 2025. The city has gotten six project ideas that can handle a total of about 10,500 tons of trash.

Market growth will be driven by more people using waste management services.

Waste management is still one of the most important problems in most developing nations. More than a billion tons of trash are made every year by farming, cities, and factories. By using WtE techniques, many industries around the world are trying to reduce how much energy they use to save money. Waste-to-energy methods, like thermochemicals, can help end users change how they handle waste and turn it into a way to make money for things like food processing, dairy farms, and treating wastewater. Chemical reactions are used to turn liquid and solid waste into syngas during the processes. After that, the syngas, also known as synthesis gas, can be used to make electricity, gas fuel, and other useful things.

Through this process, the solid waste that is made is no longer a problem because it can be used as fuel for gasifiers and turned into useful electricity and heat. This saves money and space in landfills. Also, about 40% of the electricity used in different dairy farms goes to heating activities. So, the appeal of efficient systems like making electricity from trash is likely to drive growth in the energy market over the next few years.

Restraining Factors:

WtE is still a more expensive way to get rid of trash and make energy than other services.

Governments all over the world are getting better at managing municipal solid waste. One of the best ways to get rid of MSW and make energy at the same time is to treat waste with different WtE technologies. There are many things that affect the choice of WtE technology, and each region needs to have its own situation in order to find the best solutions. This has made the WtE sector's policies and rules very complicated and scattered, with a lot of untapped potential.

Also, WtE is often seen as a more expensive way to get rid of trash and make energy than other methods that use fossil fuels. There is a disconnect because the environmental and social benefits of WtE are not valued as much as alternatives like wind and solar energy that have been around for a long time. Another problem with making energy from trash is that there aren't enough resources. So, the ability to make power is limited compared to other traditional energy sources. Because of this, certain factors, such as the availability and steady supply of raw materials, the choice of technology, and the right regulatory framework conditions, should be given more thought in the development of the market.

Segmentation Analysis:

By Technology Analysis:

The market is split into two types based on the technology used: biochemical and thermochemical. In biochemical technology, the method of anaerobic digestion is widely used to make biogas. As the trend of making electricity from biomass grows, biochemical technology is likely to take the largest share of the global waste-to-energy market. In June 2018, the EU institutions agreed on a new Renewable Energy Directive for the next ten years. This directive includes a legally binding goal of 32% renewable energy in the EU by 2030, which will be helped by the biogas sector.

Also, compared to other types of thermochemical technology, such as thermal technology, incineration makes up a big part of WtE technology. This trend is likely to keep going as long as the costs of technology are low, the market is mature, and the efficiency is high (about 25%). Also, incineration works well in both cities and rural areas, and it can handle all kinds of trash.

By Waste Type Analysis:

Based on the type of waste, the market is divided into municipal solid waste, process waste, agricultural waste, and others.

Municipal solid waste is the biggest part of this market because more trash is made by homes, businesses, schools, hospitals, hotels, and other institutions than by people. Also, most process waste comes from industrial activities, and the amount of it has grown as the number of industrial activities has grown. But the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and other government agencies have set up a system that focuses on reusing waste as raw material. This is likely to encourage the re-use of waste from industrial processes.

Also, because agricultural waste is used a lot in the gasification and pyrolysis processes, it makes up a big part of the WtE conversion. In the time frame of the waste-to-energy market forecast, the growth of the waste-to-energy market from agricultural waste is likely to be driven by the rise in waste from agricultural residues and production. Energy can also be made from other types of waste, such as manure waste, waste from silts, pesticides, herbicides, and so on.

By Application Analysis:

Based on how they are used, the market is split into two groups: electricity and heat. Using less fossil fuels and putting out less CO2 means using more electricity from clean energy sources. This means that a lot of electricity comes from waste sources.

Getting usable heat from trash is a popular way to heat homes and businesses, and it also has a big market share. The rapid growth of WtE for heat generation applications is due to the fact that energy from waste can produce heat as a byproduct, which can be sold for extra money.

Regional Insights:

The Asia-Pacific region is the market leader because its economy is growing, which means more waste is being made. Also, many governments are helping to set up WtE facilities, which means that Asia-Pacific will have the largest share of the market in the future.

Along with Asia-Pacific, Europe also has a very mature market. This is because there are many waste-to-energy facilities and plants there, and more and more energy is being made and valuable materials are being recycled from municipal solid waste.

Also, North America will have a big share of the market over the next few years because it has a lot of waste and is paying more attention to managing it. For example, the latest numbers from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency show that the EPA's accepted best practise for managing solid wastes in a sustainable way focuses on things like reducing waste at its source and recovering it, recovering energy, treating it, and getting rid of it, among other things.

Also, countries in the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America are seeing a big rise in waste-to-energy plants. This is because of the growing trend of a circular economy, which is mostly about managing waste.

Scope Analysis

Recent Development:

• June 2022 – AVR decided to partner with Swedish company HaloSep AB to explore the possibility of managing hazardous flue gas scrubbing residues locally. The HaloSep operation is a unique solution that turns hazardous waste into harmless and useful snatches. Choosing HaloSep's solution will make Rotterdam's AVR more circular by reclaiming material resources and reducing the plant's environmental footprint.
• June 2022 - Veolia bids for the sale of Suez's UK waste business and continues to build a global pioneer in ecological transformation. The project focuses on ecological change, uniting Veolia and most of Suez's international activities. Mergers have already proven to help add new skills, technologies, and geographies. It will also speed up the implementation of the Impact 2023 strategic program, strengthen Veolia's international presence and increase its ability to launch.
• April 2022 - Veolia announced it will launch two new projects to develop local sustainable low-carbon energy sources. In Finland, the world's largest biorefinery project to produce CO2-neutral bio-methanol from a pulp-making process is launched. Secondly, the Group is working with Waga Energy to commission the largest biomethane production facility to recover biogas from harmless landfills in France.
• April 2022 - Viridor announced the sale of its landfill and landfill gas business to Frank Solutions Limited. The deal includes operation and management of 44 sites across the UK. The transaction will allow Viridor to advance its net-zero plan by 2040 while continuing to deliver on its strategy of growing its core business areas of energy recovery and polymer reprocessing.
• January 2022 - The AVR – Duiven WtE Plant is a 30 MW biopower project developed in several phases and will generate 263 GWh of electricity, offsetting 400,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions per year.

Market Segmentation

By Technology:

• Thermochemical
• Biochemical
• Others

By Waste Type:

• Municipal Solid Waste
• Process Waste
• Agriculture Waste
• Others

By Application:

• Electricity
• Heat
• Others

By Companies:

• Veolia (France)
• Huawei Enterprise (China)
• China Everbright Limited (China)
• Wheelabrator Technologies Inc. (New Hampshire)
• SUEZ (Paris)
• Covanta (U.S.)
• EDF (France)
• Ramboll Group (Denmark)
• AVR (Rotterdam-Botlek)
• Allseas (Switzerland)
• Attero (India)
• Viridor (U.K.)
• Others