Feasibility Study of the Utilization of Bangkok’s Solid Waste

This paper presents a feasibility study of Bangkok’s solid waste utilization projects, i.e. electricity generation from sanitary landfill technology and crude oil production from pyrolysis technology. Cost-benefit analysis is used to assess the financial and economic feasibilities of the projects. The analytical time frame is 15 years from 2007-2021. An interest rate and machine efficiency/capacity are the variables considered in sensitivity analysis. It reveals that the amount of solid waste in year 2021 would become 12,212.48 tons/day compared to 8,820 tons/day in 2007. The amount is sufficient for the processing. Financially, the electricity generation project would be feasible considering at an interest rate of 6.25% and with the machine efficiency of 90%. At the interest rate of 10.25%, it would require 100% of machine efficiency to make the project feasible. For the crude oil production, it would be feasible at 6.25% interest rate and with the production capacity of 8 tons/day; or 10 tons/day at 10.25% interest rate. In economic analysis, the electricity production project would be feasible at 8% discount rate and with 80% efficiency of the machine. Considering at the discount rate of 10% or more, it requires at least 90% machine efficiency. For crude oil production, the project would be economically fesible with the machine capacity of at least 4 tons/day at discount rates of 8% and 10%; and 6 tons/day at 12%. The uses of solid waste for electricity generation and crude oil production are the possible alternatives for a long-term investment of the government. For private investment, the crude oil production would a more feasible project than the electricilty production.