*3.3. Official Plan for the Production of Bioenergy from the Anaerobic Digestion of Urban Food Waste*

In Taiwan, industrial waste refers to waste that is generated from industrial activities (or sources), but excludes waste generated by the employees themselves. In this regards, food waste (e.g., kitchen waste and waste cooking oil) derived from industrial sources can be listed as general (urban) waste. In order to reduce the negative impacts of food waste on MSW incineration plants and/or sanitary landfills, the Taiwan EPA has been funding local governments in developing diverse treatment options to increase the food waste processing capacity. For instance, the EPA has subsidized the installation of over 50 sets of food waste pretreatment (i.e., shredding and drying) composting plants since 2003. In recent years, the EPA is subsidizing the establishments of food waste-to-bioenergy plant in the five special municipalities, including Taichung City, Taoyuan City, Taipei City, New Taipei City, and Kaohsiung City [21]. Table 7 listed the comparisons of five municipalities in Taiwan, showing that the variations of food waste generated per capita in 2019 were very large. Among these biogas-to-power plants, the first case in Taichung City has been completed and was in operation because this site was to revitalize the old composting plant. Taoyuan City planned to finish the construction of its plant by the end of July 2021,

and all plants were estimated to be completed by 2024. Upon completion, these plants can process 230,000 metric tons of food waste per year for about 14.5 million citizens and also generate 41,970,000 kW-h electricity per year. The expected power generation not only gains an annual revenue of NT\$214.79 million from selling electricity based on the FIT rate of 5.1176 NT\$/kW-h, but also reduces the emissions of carbon dioxide by 21,363 metric tons according to the official carbon emission factor of 0.509 kg CO2/kW-h [28].


**Table 7.** Comparisons of five municipalities in Taiwan.

<sup>1</sup> Source [13].
