ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Bioeng. Biotechnol.
Sec. Bioprocess Engineering
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fbioe.2025.1691738
Municipal Solid Waste Gasification for Resilient Energy Systems: Advancing Sustainable Crisis Preparedness in the Wake of COVID-19
Provisionally accepted
- 1King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
- 2Government College University Lahore, Lahore, Pakistan
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
The pandemic increased global waste problems, especially medical and MSW (Municipal Solid Waste), showing the urgent need for sustainability. This research evaluates the environmental and economic sustainability of transforming MSW into syngas and electricity via gasification, using life cycle assessment (LCA) and techno-economic analysis. This research simulates syngas production and energy recovery for a 50-ton-per-day gasification plant, with a focus on waste disposal in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The LCA findings reveal substantial overall reductions in environmental impacts, with a climate change benefit of -100 kg CO2 eq. per ton of waste processed, alongside offsets in fossil depletion (-32.5 kg oil eq.) and particulate matter formation (-0.025 kg PM2.5 eq.). Financially, the system is sound, generating $516,474 yearly, with a 4.8-year return and 208% return on investment (ROI). The research supports various Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including SDG 7, SDG 12, and SDG 13, while also addressing waste issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Pilot-scale validation is necessary to address real-world variability when relying on simulated data. The results support gasification as a robust, circular technology for enhancing general MSW management resilience, providing policymakers with a path for transitioning MSW waste to energy in cities and during emergencies.
Keywords: Municipal solid waste, Life Cycle Assessment, Techno-economic analysis, Wasteto Energy, syngas, Gasification
Received: 24 Aug 2025; Accepted: 20 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Rehan, Shahzad, Ali and Nizami. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Mohammad Rehan, dr.mohammad_rehan@yahoo.co.uk
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.