Investigating the prospects of using a plasma gasification plant to improve the offer price of ships recycled on large-sized ‘green’ yards

The management of wastes and recycling operations on a ‘green’ ship recycling yard is expensive. Therefore, such yards offer a lower price for buying end-of-life (EOL) ships than other yards. In order to compete with yards offering a high price, ‘green’ yards need to improve their processes. Therefore, this paper investigates the use of an innovative waste management technology which has not yet found its application in the ship recycling industry. This paper proposes to utilize the waste generated on a recycling yard as a potential source of income by using plasma gasification plants to turn waste into energy and other commercial products. Such plants will also help yards manage waste environmentally friendlier than burning or land-filling. The resulting income can be used to offer a higher price to ship owners. The increase in offer price can be calculated by using the economic analysis model presented in this paper. The results show that the investment in a plasma gasification plant is earned back reasonably quickly and an adequate increase in offer price is possible under certain scenarios considered in this research.