By Micaela Tuckwell

The waste-to-energy market which includes technology such as incineration. gasification, plasma gasification, pyrolysis and anaerobic digestion is expected to grow at a rate of 11% over the coming decade.

Shelley Carr, a publisher from SBI Energy who issued these findings in Thermal and Digestion Waste-To-Energy Technologies Worldwide, explains this growth:

“Waste to energy market expansion is rooted in the waste management and in the alternative fuels/power industry. Demand for waste management solutions and for alternative energy sources thereby coalesce to drive demand for waste to energy technologies. A significant advantage of these dual drivers is that demand for waste to energy technologies is proven resilient. As landfill availability continues to decline, the demand for waste management solutions will remain regardless of economic stresses, and will continue to drive the installation of new waste to energy facilities,"

Aided by the maturation of European waste management regulations and European and US climate mitigation strategies over the next decade, this expansion will be led by growth within the US, European, Chinese and Indian markets.

This expansion will bring the market closer to harvesting the 24 quadrillion Btu’s of energy available from the 2.1 billion tons of waste generated globally, enough for 10% of the electricity consumed worldwide.