Research Overview

In the last five years, interest in various types of waste-to-fuel and chemicals technologies has increased amongst industrial players, government agencies, and environmental organizations. The goal is to reduce dependency on fossil fuels and reduce the environmental and economic burden caused by landfills, through conversion of waste into clean resources for energy generation, chemical synthesis, and material development.

The importance for technologies that can effectively convert various types of waste into fuel and chemicals is also driven by end-consumer awareness about the negative impact of waste on the environment and human health. While technologies that can transform various domestic and industrial waste are available, they are not always environmentally friendly or even efficient. For example, more than 60% of all municipal solid waste is dumped in landfills and combusted for energy recovery through incineration processes. The percentage goes as high as 85 to 90% in certain regions of Asia-Pacific. The dumping of waste in landfills leads to the generation of methane, and its incineration results in the production of greenhouse gases (GHG), including carbon monoxide (CO), and carbon dioxide (CO2). Continuous use of these disposal and treatment methods will have a significant impact on global warming and climate change. Such concerns and lack of effective waste handling, treatment, and recovery methods are ensuring that government and environmental organizations across the world focus on creating innovative ecosystems to develop and deploy waste-to-fuel and chemicals technologies.

This research service, Global Waste-to-Fuel and Chemicals Technology Growth Opportunities, summarizes various innovative technologies used in the conversion of different wastes to clean fuel and chemicals. Frost & Sullivan has focused on technologies that are emerging in the waste-to-fuel and chemicals technology landscape. The technologies include: ionic gasification, nutrient recovery, solvent-based purification, CO2 hydrogenation, fast pyrolysis, and hydrothermal liquefaction. While nutrient recovery is well established in terms of technology deployment, continuous effort from stakeholders to improve these technologies and thus enable the direct conversion of obtained nutrients into end products such as fertilizers, makes it an emerging area of technology research and development.