Municipal Solid Waste Management in Lahore, Pakistan - Characterization and Energy Content

This study aims to investigate municipal solid waste (MSW) of Lahore, 2 nd biggest city of Pakistan with a population of eleven million according to census, 2017. Socio-economic structure was considered and a set of samples was collected from different locations to study the physical composition, proximate and ultimate analysis, and heating values of MSW of Lahore. Listed in decreasing sequence, the physical components of Lahore MSW are biodegradable, nylon, textile, combustibles and mixed paper. The received results of moisture content (43.62 %), volatile content (28.37 %), ash content (24.69 %), fixed carbon (3.31 %), high heating value 7160 kJ-kg -1 , elemental carbon (18.05 %), nitrogen (0.73 %), hydrogen (7.28 %), sulphur (0.22 %) and oxygen (49.03 %) are in line with the MSW data of China, Malaysia and other Asian countries. These results show that the high moisture content and low heating values are the major bottlenecks to get the maximum energy from incineration facilities.