A new opportunity for village and town waste treatment: small incineration facilities may become the next

At present, China's rural domestic waste management is accelerating the pace of development, but it is in the initial stage as a whole. China has more than 2,800 county-level administrative districts, with different geographical environments, population densities, and economic levels, and the garbage disposal situation is also complex and diverse. In some places, the waste treatment facilities were extremely rudimentary, which not only polluted the environment, but also seriously affected the quality of life of residents. However, in recent years, some small waste incineration projects have begun to bear fruit, and some small waste treatment points in villages and towns have gradually transformed into the basic form of modern incineration plants, which has brought new opportunities for village and town waste treatment.

1. Policies to promote the construction of small-scale incineration facilities

In November 2022, the National Development and Reform Commission and other departments jointly issued the "Guiding Opinions on Strengthening the Construction of Domestic Waste Incineration Treatment Facilities in County-level Areas" and "Notice on Accelerating the Implementation Plan for Filling the Weaknesses of Domestic Waste Incineration Treatment Facilities in County-level Areas" and other regulations. The relevant regulations are as follows: by 2025, the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and its surrounding areas, the Yangtze River Delta, the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, and the National Ecological Civilization Pilot Zone will basically achieve full coverage of domestic waste incineration treatment capacity; The Yangtze River Economic Belt, the Yellow River Basin, key cities for domestic waste classification, "zero-waste city" construction areas and other qualified county-level areas should build domestic waste incineration treatment facilities. By 2030, except for a few special areas that do not have the conditions, the domestic waste incineration treatment capacity of county-level areas across the country will basically meet the target of treatment demand.

2. The market blue ocean: the "tens of billions" track is ready to go

China has more than 2,800 county-level administrative districts, of which about 60% of the counties have a daily garbage removal volume of less than 300 tons. Traditional large-scale incineration plants are difficult to cover these areas due to high construction costs and large footprints. Small-scale incineration facilities (2-10 tons/day) are the best solution to fill this gap due to their flexibility and low cost. It is predicted that the market size of small-scale incineration equipment will exceed 5 billion yuan in 2025, with a compound annual growth rate of more than 15%. This growth trend shows the strong demand for small-scale incineration facilities in the county economy, and also provides a huge market opportunity for related companies. At present, the pilot work of small-scale incineration is being actively carried out.

3. Focus on the pain points of small-scale waste incineration in villages and towns

Decentralized small-scale incineration facilities must break through the dual bottlenecks of environmental protection standards and waste heat recovery in order to achieve economic operation. The energy output of waste incineration is limited and hindered to the realization of economic operation. In fact, compared with the technical threshold, the system planning ability of local governments is more critical - at present, the large-scale and miniaturization technology of China's grate furnace has matured, and how to do small-scale waste incineration in villages and towns is not technology, but management. Taking a 50 tons/day project as an example, the labor cost accounted for more than 30%, and the processing cost per ton reached 180 yuan, far exceeding the red line of county-level financial load. The use of thermal energy can reduce the burden on the government, but the surrounding environment of many small incineration plants lacks heat conditions, which is also a real problem that has to be faced.

4.Three disruptive practices: let the "small incineration" into "cash flow"

1) "Incineration +" ecosphere model (Liuba County, Shaanxi)

Waste heat → mushroom drying workshop of incineration plant (annual output value of 8 million yuan)

Ash → environmental protection brick factory (replacing clay bricks, saving land reclamation fee of 2 million yuan/year).

2) County Thermal Energy Network Plan (SUS Environmental Program)

<100 tons/day: build a distributed heat station with a radius of 5 kilometers for communities

100 tons/day: connected to the regional steam pipeline network to create a "garbage heat bank".

3) Ningbo pilot: Fly ash preparation of ceramsite → carbon sequestration certification → CCER trading

High-performance ceramsite was prepared by using waste incineration fly ash and heavy metal sludge. Fly ash preparation ceramsite is a new type of environmentally friendly building materials, with excellent physical and chemical properties, such as high strength, high density, good impermeability and durability, is an ideal alternative to traditional building materials. Through the preparation of ceramsite from fly ash, the enterprise can comprehensively utilize 120,000 tons of fly ash and 60,000 tons of other sludge every year to form an annual production capacity of 250,000 cubic meters of ceramsite. In the process of preparing ceramsite from fly ash, the heavy metals in the fly ash are solidified and stabilized and the dioxins are completely decomposed in the high-temperature sintering process through high-temperature sintering technology, which realizes the reduction, harmlessness and resource utilization of fly ash disposal. This process not only reduces the environmental pollution caused by fly ash, but also further enhances the environmental value of the project through carbon sequestration certification. Through carbon sequestration certification, enterprises can obtain carbon credits, and then participate in CCER trading, which can generate more than 3 million yuan of revenue per year.