North America Waste to Energy Market - Growth, Trends, and Forecasts (2020 - 2025)

The North America waste to energy (WTE) market is expected to grow at a CAGR of more than 7.5% during the forecast period 2020-2025. The advancements and penetration of the WTE technologies in North America have still not resonated with the pace at which the waste gets generated in the region. The region’s decreasing availability of landfill space is creating a shift toward the development of renewable energy, which provides the market with immense potential for growth in the near future. The United States has been one of the countries worldwide at the forefront of adopting WTE technologies mainly because of the introduction of many favorable government initiatives. The country still lacks suitable policies and regulations concerning WTE, high capital investment, and several other factors that have been restraining the growth in the WTE market.

• Thermal technology is expected to dominate the waste-to-energy market, in 2019, owing to the increasing development in the incineration and gasification technologies, as well as the increasing amount of waste generated, especially from the growing economies of North America.
• Emerging waste-to-energy technologies, such as Dendro Liquid Energy (DLE), which is four times more efficient in terms of electricity generation, with additional benefits of no emission discharge and effluence problems at plant sites are expected to create significant opportunities for the market players in the future.
• The United States is expected to dominate the market over the forecast period.

Key Market Trends

Thermal Based Waste to Energy Conversion to Dominate the Market

As of 2019, thermal technology is expected to account for the highest market share in the global waste-to-energy market. This trend is expected to continue in the coming years owing to the increasing developments in the technologies of incineration and gasification.

• In Dec 2019, Systems International announced plans for two upcoming Zeros plants in Texas. Both would be near Houston one in Chambers County, another in Liberty County. The company works with project developers that want to pursue Zeros projects. The concept of a 120-megawatt plant that produces 20 million gallons a day of distilled water.
• In the present scenario, incineration is the most well-known waste-to-energy technology for Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) processing, owing to cost-effectiveness. However, waste-to-energy technologies, particularly incineration, produce pollution and carry potential health safety risks.
• In order to reduce particulate and gas-phase emissions, incineration plant owners have adopted a series of process units for cleaning the flue gas stream, which has, in turn, led to a significant improvement in terms of environmental sustainability.

The United States to Dominate the Market

In 2019, there were 86 waste-to-energy facilities in the United States. According to the Energy Recovery Council, they provide 2,700 MW of clean electricity on a 24 hour per day, 365 days per year basis enough to power about 2 million homes.

• Solid waste is usually burned at special waste-to-energy plants that use the heat from the fire to make steam for generating electricity or to heat buildings. In 2018, 68 US power plants generated about 14 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity from burning 29.5 million tons of combustible MSW.
• Biomass materials accounted for about 64% of the weight of the combustible MSW and about 51% of the electricity generated. The remainder of the combustible MSW was nonbiomass combustible material, mainly plastics.
• Many large landfills also generate electricity by using the methane gas that is produced from decomposing biomass in landfills.

Competitive Landscape

The North American waste to energy market is moderately fragmented. Some of the key players are Covanta Holding Corp, Waste Management Inc., Suez SA, Martin GmbH, and Wheelabrator Technologies Inc.

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