Can support policies promote the innovative diffusion of waste-to-energy technology?

Global trends of waste-to-energy (WtE) technologies in carbon neutral perspective: Bibliometric analysis

Waste-to-energy (WtE) technology is at the forefront of low-carbon municipal solid waste (MSW) treatment. MSW has been favoured by researchers in recent years due to its high potential to dispose of resources with WtE technology, which contributes to the carbon neutrality goal. However, there is a lack of research that integrates MSW WtE treatment from a global perspective and explores its future direction. Bibliometric methods are widely used because of their advantages in qualitative and quantitative literature information analysis. A comprehensive search was conducted in the Web of Science (WOS) Core Collection database, covering the period from 1990-2022, resulting in the collection of 702 articles. Subsequently, bibliometric software such as CiteSpace, VOSviewer, and Bibliometrix, were jointly employed for co-occurrence, co-citation, and cluster analyses, providing an in-depth qualitative and quantitative analysis of the research hotspots and development trends of WtE technology for MSW treatment. The research findings indicate a rapid growth in studies on carbon emission reduction through WtE technology for MSW treatment since 2015, with these related articles accounting for 50% of articles. Globally, China, the United States, Italy, and other countries were active research regions, with Chinese research institutions making the largest contributions. However, contributions from developing countries are limited. Furthermore, this study systematically elaborates on the research hotspots in this field. Finally, this study identified some frontier research hotspots and directions. Research on WtE technology primarily focuses on technological methods and policy management, particularly from the carbon neutrality perspective, emphasis WtE technology sustainability in reducing carbon emissions and achieving carbon neutrality goals. Promoting the use of assisted decision-making models in the MSW management process, and focusing on the conversion of food waste into valuable energy. It is hoped that these research directions will provide new ideas for the balanced and rapid development of WtE technology.

The temporal and spatial characteristics and influencing factors of CO2 emissions from municipal solid waste in China

Understanding the temporal and spatial characteristics of carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions from municipal solid waste (MSW) and a quantitative evaluation of the contribution rate of the factors influencing the changes in CO₂ emissions are important for pollution and emission reduction and the realization of the "double carbon" goal. This study analyzed the spatial and temporal evolution of waste generation and treatment based on panel data from 31 Chinese provinces over the past 15 years and then applied the logarithmic mean Divisia index (LMDI) model to study the driving factors of CO₂ emissions from MSW. China's MSW production and CO₂ emissions displayed a rising trend, and the overall CO₂ emissions showed a geographical pattern of being high in the east and low in the west. Carbon emission intensity, economic output, urbanization level, and population size were positive factors that increased CO₂ emissions. The most important factors driving CO₂ emissions were carbon emission intensity and economic output, with cumulative contribution rates of 55.29% and 47.91%, respectively. Solid waste emission intensity was a negative factor in reducing CO₂ emissions, with a cumulative contribution rate of -24.52%. These results have important implications for the design of policies to reduce CO₂ emissions from MSW.