How much electricity does an MSW-fired Steam Electric Plant produce?
It depends first of all on the amount of MSW it is designed to use. A plant designed to consume 500 tons of MSW per day would produce about half as much electricity as a plant designed to consume 1000 tons per day. It also depends on the heat content of the MSW it uses. The heat content varies with the composition. • For example, rubber and plastics have a higher heat content than the other mateials in MSW. In some places, rubber and plastics are removed from the MSW before it is delivered to the plant. • So, even though a plant in such an area consumes 1000 tons per day, it doesn’t produce as much power as a plant consuming 1000 tons per day in an area where the rubber and plastics are left in the MSW. As a general rule of thumb in the US, a well-designed and well-operated MSW-fired Steam Electric Plant consuming 1000 tons per day of average US MSW would have a nominal capacity of about 30 megawatts. Some of its capacity is used in the plant itself. Over a year, the output to the elec
