Abstract
Municipal solid waste incinerators (MSWIs) are exposed to high temperature gases and acid gases that cause damage to the equipment within MSWIs. MSWIs need to be inspected and repaired at least once a year, a cost that has become a large financial burden on municipalities. Periodic repairs are normally contracted out to the companies that construct the MSWIs because the constructor is considered to be the only one who has the specific technical knowledge required for making repairs. This contract system makes it difficult to know what the exact repair costs actually are.
In this paper, current MSWI repair costing is investigated and a detailed inspection method for repair costing is then proposed. The paper also reports on several case studies that have been performed at some of the existing MSWIs. Results indicate that there are large differences among MSWI facilities when it comes to repair costs. It is necessary for administrative bodies at MSWI to adopt a reasonable detailed inspection method for estimating repair costs. In addition, when planning for the construction of a new MSWI, they must take into consideration not only the initial costs but also budgeting for periodic repair costs in the future.
