Technical and economic analysis of potential steam supply from waste treatment plants to industries in Aichi Prefecture, Japan

Waste-to-energy treatment is an efficient energy recovery method and an important countermeasure against global warming. The supply of steam from waste treatment plants to industrial sectors presents a higher energy recovery efficiency than traditional waste-to-energy methods. However, its technical potential and economic benefits are not fully understood by policymakers. Furthermore, the regional characteristics and effects of neighboring land use, which affect the heat supply and demand, are not commonly analyzed. Therefore, this study evaluates the spatial steam demand of industries in the Aichi Prefecture by using the steam demand unit value per production shipment and the spatial value of manufactured goods shipments. In addition, this study evaluates the steam supply potential from waste treatment plants to industrial sectors based on the estimated spatial steam demand and the transportable distances. The results show that the steam supply from waste treatment plants to the industries has a great physical potential in Aichi Prefecture. From a cost–benefit perspective, plans considering a 1 km range can be profitable, but the profitability decreases as the distance increases and the no-profitability mesh number increases. To improve the energy recovery efficiency from waste, the location of waste treatment plant should be changed, and the efficiency of steam transport on both supply and demand sides should be increased.