Overview of Municipal Solid Waste Generation and Energy Utilization Potential in Major Cities of Indonesia

Abstract

Problems in municipal solid waste sector remains a challenge to solve for the government of Indonesia. Processing waste into fuel, or known as refuse derived fuel (RDF), are some of the technological alternatives considered to tackle the waste problem. This paper aims to describe recent information on municipal solid waste generation in major cities of Indonesia, including DKI Jakarta, Tangerang, Bekasi, Bandung, Semarang, Surakarta, Surabaya, Makassar, Denpasar, and Palembang, and to overview its potential for energy utilization as refuse derived fuel (RDF). Municipal solid waste generation in Indonesia was assessed based on sources, generation rate, and composition data by year of 2018. Data was obtained from the State Ministry of Environment and Forestry’s (SMEF) national inventory of waste generation website, the National Waste Information System (SIPSN). To assess refuse derived fuel (RDF) potential, waste characteristics such as calorific value, water content, volatile content, ash content is evaluated for each composition. In those cities, municipal solid waste generation rate was 0,69 kg/capita-day, with 1780 tonnes/day generated on an average per city. Household sector was significantly the largest source of municipal solid waste generation in all cities in Indonesia, which contributed 44-75% to total waste generated. The composition of municipal waste consists of 43.78% of food waste, 16.05% of paper, and 14.08% of plastics. The result of calculations showed that, mixed municipal solid waste from those cities has high water content with average of 49.94%, high volatile content with average of 53.34%, and low ash content with average of 6.12%. Calculated heating value of the mixed municipal solid waste is 9.5 MJ/kg which is lower than standard for refuse derived fuel of 12.56 MJ/kg. Therefore, sorting and pre-treatment mixed municipal solid waste in Indonesia is necessary to meet the criteria of refuse derived fuel material.