Esher Hsu
National Taipei University, Taiwan
Title: Cost-benefit analysis of agricultural waste recycling in Taiwan
Biography
Biography: Esher Hsu
Abstract
Along with the development of circular economy, the waste recycling of agriculture in Taiwan has received much attention. Major recycling types of agricultural waste including energy recovery and compost which can not only reduce waste pollution, but also create economic benefits. However, the cost efficiency of agricultural waste recycling has been argued in Taiwan. This paper intends to evaluate the feasibility of recycling agricultural waste in Taiwan through cost-benefit analysis of different recycling types, and further provides policy suggestions of recycling. The study results show that the cost of energy recovery of agricultural waste is about twice of the benefit for biogas power plant in Taiwan; whereas, compost recycling has relative low cost but the quality of compost is unstable for fertilizer use. Moreover, high investment costs of biogas power generation equipment and relatively low of the grid-connected electricity price could not provide investment incentives for energy recycling of agricultural waste which thus reduces recovery efficiency of Taiwan's waste energy recycling. Study results suggest that (1) adjusting the FITs of biogas power generation to compete with other renewable energy, such as solar photovoltaic to increase the energy recovery efficiency, (2) improving the quality of compost through technical reform to increase recycling efficiency of compost.