Energy Efficiency Analysis of Waste-to-Energy Plants in Poland

The issue of enhancing energy recovery efficiency is a key concern within the European Union’s climate protection efforts. In particular, it applies to all processes and plants for the harvesting, gathering, and conversion of energy. The abandonment of fossil fuels in favour of alternative energy sources, and the increasing of energy efficiency and its recovery, is now a widely accepted direction of energy development. This study focuses on facilities that recover and process energy from municipal waste left after recycling processes, known as waste-to-energy (WtE) plants. These plants’ energy recovery efficiency is governed by the R1 Formula in EU countries. This report is based on an analysis of four years of operational data from selected Polish municipal waste incinerators, supplemented by a discussion of various studies on energy recovery efficiency. The primary objective of this report is to evaluate the effectiveness of these plants in contributing to sustainable waste management and energy recovery. The main effect of the developed report is the set of results of the energy recovery efficiency factor values, determined based on the R1 formula valid in the EU legislation, tabulated and graphically illustrated, and calculated for five selected Polish waste-to-energy plants. The presented results, with their graphical interpretation, discussion, and conclusions, provide insights into several factors influencing the value of the R1 efficiency factor. They can be a valuable contribution to operators of waste-to-energy plants, especially those operating in countries outside the EU.