April 12, 2011

Three key trends that define modern civilization are increased urbanization, rising demand for energy, and rapid growth in the amount of municipal solid waste (MSW) that is generated by industrialized societies.  However, emerging waste-to-energy (WTE) technologies hold the promise of addressing two of these major issues by utilizing MSW for the efficient production of electricity and heat using both biological and thermal methods.  A recent report from  Pike Research forecasts that global revenues from WTE systems will experience strong growth over the next five years, more than tripling in size from $4.2 billion in 2011 to almost $13.6 billion by 2016.