A net-positive waste-to-energy management for light electric vehicle charging station using plasma pyrolysis

The urban transportation demands a reliable and sustainable charging system that concurrently manages municipal solid waste (MSW) and synthesizes renewable energy. This article proposes a new solution that offers a net-positive energy balance for a waste-to-energy (WTE) powered light electric vehicle (LEV) charging system. A two DC bus architecture is developed in which DC bus 1 integrates a syngas-driven permanent synchronous generator (WTE-PMSG) unit, battery energy storage (BES), and three LEV chargers, while DC bus 2 is dedicated to integrating with PV and the grid to power the plasma pyrolysis (PP) torch to develop a temperature in the plasma chamber range of 900-1000 ^°C . An energy management strategy is proposed to enable the system to operate in a net-positive energy scenario, coordinating four operating modes on both buses independently. A mathematical model has been developed for the proposed net-positive LEV charging system using the MATLAB/Simulink environment. The sequential LEV charging, syngas flow rate variations, WTE generator trip, variation in PV irradiance, and variation in plasma torch power demand developed for the daily operating cycle validated the proposed control architecture. The results confirm that WTE generation fully covers LEV charging demand and PV export completely offsets the grid power import over the daily cycle. The proposed WTE unit processing 60 kg/day of MSW generates 38.31 units/day of electricity, fully satisfying the 29.25 units/day LEV charging of three vehicles per day with a 31% energy surplus. This demonstrates the technical viability and environmental sustainability of waste valorization.