ENERGY FROM WASTE

Waste: Liability or Asset?? Liability for the uninspired, but to a think tank of channeled ideas, the very same waste could turn out to be a huge asset. The increasing quantum and diversity of the waste materials generated by the human activities sends an alarming signal not only to adopt advanced scientific methods, but also to convert these waste into a more useful form of energy. Besides recovery of substantial energy, these methods should lead to a substantial reduction in the overall waste quantities and pave a path to overcome the ever-increasing energy crisis worldwide. Recent estimates indicate that with rapid urbanization, about 40 million tonnes of solid waste and about 5000 million cubic metres of liquid waste are generated every year in the urban areas of the country along with a large quantity of solid and liquid waste from the industrial sector. It is also estimated that there is a potential of generating about 1500 MW of power from urban and municipal wastes and about 1000 MW from industrial wastes in the country, which can increase further with economic development. This estimation is based on the structured data base prepared for 299 Class I cities and 36 Class II cities as part of National Master Plan for Development of Waste to Energy in India being taken up under UNDP/GEF assisted Project on Development of High Rate Biomethanation Processes. The study concluded that 17(6%) cities have generation rate in excess of 1000 TPD, and 80 cities (26%) generate 150 to 1000 TPD. The balance 202 cities (68%) individually generate less than 150 TPD. The municipal solid waste (MSW) generation ranges from 0.25 to 0.66 kg/person/day with an average of 0.45 kg/person/day. The National Programme on Energy Recovery from Urban & Industrial wastes, launched during the year 1995-96, has the following objectives: a) To promote setting up of projects for recovery of energy from wastes of renewable nature from Urban and Industrial sectors; and b) To create conducive conditions and environment, with fiscal and financial regime, to develop, demonstrate and disseminate utilization of wastes for recovery of energy. c) To develop and demonstrate new technologies on waste-to-energy through R&D projects and pilot plant.

(SOURCE: W2E: Waste 2 Energy Pvt. Ltd.-Rajaram pdf) Municipal solid waste (MSW) is one of three major waste-to-energy technologies, the others being anaerobic digestion and biomass. Municipal Solid Waste: Municipal solid waste (MSW) includes household waste, construction and demolition debris, sanitation residue, and waste from streets. This garbage is generated mainly from residential and commercial complexes. In 1947, cities and towns in India generated an estimated 6 million tonnes of solid waste and by 1997 it hiked to about 48 million tonnes. More than 25% of the municipal solid waste is still not collected at all. The energy content depends on the constituent of the waste. The energy density of waste generated in Indian towns and cities is about 15 - 16 MJ/kg. According to the estimates (Technical Master Plan for Development of Waste-to-Energy in India, August 2003, Montgomery Watson), the per capital generation is 0.3 - 0.4 kg (towns), 0.5 kg (cities) of which nearly 60 70% would be organic combustibles. There are different categories of waste generated, each take their own time to degenerate (as illustrated in the table below).

Typical Indian MSW Composition Description Percent by weight

Approximate time it takes to degenerate

Organic waste such as vegetable or fruit peels, left-over food stuff. Grass Paper Metal especially tin, aluminium, and other Metal cans Plastic bags Glass, ceramics

40.15 3.80 0.81 0.64 0.62 0.44

A week or two A week or two 10-30 days 100-500 years 1 million year Undetermined

Electricity from MSW:

Electricity can be produced by burning "municipal solid waste" (MSW) as a fuel. MSW power plants, also called waste to energy (WTE) plants, are designed to dispose of MSW and to produce electricity as a byproduct of the incinerator operation. MSW incinerators often produce electricity in WTE plants. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recommends, "The most environmentally sound management of MSW is achieved when these approaches are implemented according to EPA's preferred order: source reduction first, recycling and composting second, and disposal in landfills or waste combustors last." EPA estimates that in 1998 17 percent of the MSW in US was burned and generated electricity (e.g., 14% in Pennsylvania, 2% in New Jersey; 2% in California), 55% was disposed in landfills, and 28% was recovered for reuse.

(SOURCE: W2E: Waste 2 Energy Pvt. Ltd.-Rajaram pdf) There are a number of other new and emerging technologies that are able to produce energy from waste and other fuels without direct combustion. Thermal technologies: Gasification (produces combustible gas, hydrogen, synthetic fuels) Thermal depolymerization (produces synthetic crude oil, which can be further refined) Pyrolysis (produces combustible tar/[[bio-oil] and chars]) Plasma arc gasification PGP or plasma gasification process (produces rich syngas including Hydrogen and Carbon Monoxide usable for fuel cells or generating electricity to drive the plasma arch, useable vitrified silicate and metal ingots, salt and sulphur) Gas-plasma - An integrated process of front end gasification of shreaded waste to syngas, plasma arc treatment of syngas and syngas cleaning and conditioning. Syngas, Plasmarok, Hydrogen, Carbon monoxide and CHP are the outputs. Residuals to landfill are less than 1%. Non-thermal technologies: Anaerobic digestion (Biogas rich on methane) Ethanol production Mechanical biological treatment o MBT + Anaerobic digestion or Advanced MBT (AMBT) o MBT to Refuse derived fuel MSW can be directly combusted in waste-to-energy facilities as a fuel with minimal processing, known as mass burn; it can undergo moderate to extensive processing before being directly combusted as refuse-derived fuel; or it can be gasified using pyrolysis or thermal gasification techniques. Each of these technologies presents the opportunity for both electricity production as well as an alternative to land filling or composting the MSW. Pyrolysis and thermal gasification are related technologies. Pyrolysis is the thermal decomposition of organic material at elevated temperatures in the absence of gases such as air or oxygen. Thermal gasification of MSW is different from pyrolysis as here the thermal decomposition takes place in the presence of a limited amount of oxygen or air. The producer gas which is generated can then be used in either boilers or cleaned up and used in combustion turbine/generators.

Burning MSW converts water to steam to drive a turbine connected to an electricity generator. Mass burn technology, the most common MSW-to-electricity technology, involves the combustion of unprocessed or minimally processed refuse. The major components of a mass burn facility include: 1. Refuse receiving, handling, and storage systems 2. The combustion and steam generation system (a boiler) 3. A flue gas cleaning system 4. The power generation equipment (steam turbine and generator) 5. A condenser cooling water system 6. A residue hauling and storage system Heat from the combustion process is used to turn water into steam, with the steam then routed to a steam turbine-generator for power generation. Refuse-derived fuel (RDF) facilities process the MSW prior to direct combustion. Refuse-derived fuel (RDF) typically consists of fluff MSW that is the by-product of a resource recovery operation. Processing removes ferrous materials, glass, grit, and other materials that are not combustible. The remaining material is then sold as RDF. Both the RDF processing facility and the RDF combustion facility are located near each other, if not on the same site. The RDF can then be used in one of several configurations: 1. Dedicated RDF boilers designed with traveling grate spreader-stokers 2. Co-firing of RDF with coal or oil in a multi-fuel boiler 3. Dedicated RDF fluidized-bed boiler As of 2008, there in only one commercial RDF facilities in operation in California, a 10.5 MW facility in the City of Commerce, operated by the Los Angeles County Sanitation District. MSW contains a diverse mix of waste materials, some benign and some very toxic. Such toxics pose a severe environmental problem and thus their control and air pollution are key features of environmental regulations governing MSW fueled electric generation. In 1995, the EPA significantly tightened the regulation of plants using MSW to produce energy. EPA then issued a new "Maximum Achievable Control Technology" rule pursuant to the Federal Clean Air Act for the waste-to-energy industry for large MSW incinerators and WTE plants. Facilities were required to comply with the new rule by the end of 2000. The EPA studies estimate that enforcement of this new rule will reduce emissions of mercury and dioxin from WTE plants by about 90% and 99%, respectively, from their 1990 levels. However, because trash is inherently an inefficient source of fuel, WTE plant's mercury emissions compare with coal plants on the basis of each kilowatt-hour-generated by a facility. There is a huge energy generation potential associated with the solid and liquid wastes: A. Waste generation trends in India: Year 1971 1981 1991 1997 2025 Per capita waste generation (g/day) 375 430 460 490 700 Total urban municipal waste generation(MT/year) 14.9 25.1 43.5 48.5 Double the amt. of 1997

B. Potential of power generation: Urban and municipal wastes 1000 MW

Industrial 700 MW (dairy, distillery, tannery, pulp and paper, and food processing industry) Total 1700 MW Some MSW Based Energy from Waste Projects: 1. MW power project utilizing vegetable market and slaughterhouse waste at Vijayawada, A.P. is based on biomethanation of 20 tonnes per day of mixed wastes (i.e. 16 tonnes of vegetable market waste and 4 tonnes of slaughterhouse waste) generated in Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC). The plant was commissioned in February 2004 and was expected to daily generate about 1600 cu. m of biogas and 5 tonnes of organic manure on its complete stabilization. It generates about 2100-2275 units per day. M/s Mailhem Engineers Pvt. Ltd. (MEPL), Pune has been retained as the Engineering Company for Design, Detailed Engineering, Supply, Construction, Erection, Testing and Commissioning of the Plant on a turnkey basis.

2. Cochin Waste 2 Energy Project was officially launched in Cochin, by the innovative company Cochin Waste 2 Energy Pvt. Ltd., Kerela together with their technical experts- W2E USA Inc. on February 4th, 2008. The Cochin Chamber of Commerce & Industry demonstrated its continuous efforts towards a clean and healthy future. This facility, located at Willington Island, Cochin is scheduled to be implemented by mid 2009 and targets to provide over 1MW of electricity per hour through gasification of nearly 35 tons of waste per day that would otherwise have ended in a landfill or incinerated. This waste to energy project can handle any type of waste without sorting and covers a land area of 1 acre. The company has its US offices in Princeton, New Jersey, and Palatine, Illinois. 3. SGRRL Municipal Solid Waste Project at Mandur Village, Hoskote Taluk, Bangalore (East) District, Karnataka was undertaken by M/s Srinivasa Gayathri Resource Recovery Ltd (SGRRL) in June 2006 by an agreement with the Bangalore Mahanagar Palika(BMP). SGRR Ltd. aims to establish, manage and integrate waste to energy facility comprising of a 1000 Tons Per Day (TPD) RDF (Refuse Derived Fuel) Plant and a power plant of 8 MW in its Phase I activity. The RDF plant would be a Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) treatment facility capable of producing a minimum of 300 TPD RDF which will be used for generating electricity. This project is estimated to be completed by February 2009. 4. MW Power Project at Hyderabad, based on MSW for 6.0 MW power generations was commissioned during the year by M/s SELCO International, Hyderabad. The project has been completed in 2 phases; the first for the preparation of pellets from MSW and the other for power generation by combustion of MSW pellets. 5. Guntur Municipal Corporation implemented a combination of sewage treatment and Segregated Biodegradable Organic Waste which has a capacity of 20 TPD segregated organic waste and 10 MLD sewage and generates about 120kW of power. There are many more such projects being implemented throughout our country and worldwide and even more are in the pipeline. The energy crisis is a very grave issue and it affects each one of us

immensely and thus, it becomes a huge responsibility to convert the waste generated into a useful form. Every element of this chain should gear up so as to gain from the benefits out of it. The goal is not achieved yet and there are many milestones to cross and promises to keep.