Waste To Energy

ABSTRACT

Proper treatment of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) is one of major challenges achieving adequate sustainability especially in the urban environment. The amount of MSW typically increases as consuming more goods and services for high standard of living. In Nigeria, the majority of MSW is land filled and less than 35 percent of total MSW is recycle. New energy technology provides an opportunity to lessen the increasing burden of MSW. MSW can be converted into valuable energy sources using Waste-to-Energy (WTE) technologies such as incineration, hydrolysis, gasification, and plasma arc gasification. Various energy sources produced from the WTE technologies can be used in lieu of fossil energy resources. It is expected that various aspects of sustainability related to energy and waste treatment can be improved. The study introduces waste-to-energy and various technologies and applications in terms of sustainable urban energy development and MSW treatment.

 TABLE OF CONTENTS

COVER PAGE

TITLE PAGE

APPROVAL PAGE

DEDICATION

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

ABSTRACT

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1      BACKGROUND OF THE PROJECT

• PROBLEM STATEMENT
• AIM AND OBJECTIVE OF THE PROJECT
• PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
• BENEFIT OF THE STUDY
• ADVANTAGES OF WASTE TO ENERGY
• METHODOLOGY
• PROJECT ORGANISATION

CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW

• REVIEW OF THE STUDY
• HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
• ENVIRONMENTAL AND SOCIAL IMPACTS OF WASTE TO ENERGY (WTE) CONVERSION PLANTS

CHAPTER THREE

METHODOLOGY

• METHOD OF WASTE TO ENERGY

CHAPTER FOUR

• WTE IMPLEMENTATION IN URBAN ENVIRONMENT
• ENERGY PRODUCTION AND EFFICIENCY
• ISSUES OF SOME WASTE-TO-ENERGY METHODS
• THE FUTURE OF WASTE-TO-ENERGY

CHAPTER FIVE

• CONCLUSION
• RECOMMENDATION
• REFERENCES
• APPENDIX

 CHAPTER ONE

1.0                                                        INTRODUCTION

1.1                                           BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Waste-to-energy (WtE) is also known as energy-from-waste (EfW) is the process of generating energy in the form of electricity and/or heat from the primary treatment of waste, or the processing of waste into a fuel source. WtE is a form of energy recovery. Most WtE processes generate electricity and/or heat directly through combustion, or produce a combustible fuel commodity, such as methane, methanol, ethanol. or synthetic fuels according to Herbert, Lewis (2007).

Waste can be Wet waste, solid waste, and gaseous waste streams are potential high-impact resources for the domestic production of biofuels, bioproduct precursors, heat, and electricity. Wastes represent a significant and underutilized set of feedstocks for renewable fuel and product generation.

Waste-to-energy has been evolving over the years and there are many new developments in this technology, moving in mainly one direction – to be able to applied to smaller size waste streams. Not only is it a strategy that has real importance for the current public policy, it is a strategy that will definitely present itself to additional areas.

More than 50% of waste that is burnt in waste-to-energy facilities is already part of the short carbon cycle. In which case, it has an organic derivative and it doesn’t add to climate change, to begin with. The long form carbon that is burned, things like plastics that have come out of the ground in the form of oil do add to climate change. But, they have already been used once. They have already been extracted once and what we are doing is taking the energy out of them after that physical use, capturing some of that (energy), thereby offsetting more carbon from natural gas or oil or coal. So, the net effect is a reduction in carbon emissions.

Waste-to-energy and recycling are complementary depending on the results of analyses of the First and Second Laws of Thermodynamics, which are absolutely valid. One can decide in specific situations whether WTE or whether some type of recycling technology would be more appropriate. It is not an either/or option. Waste To Energy is a project whose main purpose is to draw up a strategy of action allowing to reduce the volume of dumped waste, and at the same time to find an optimal solution of its reuse in the form of energy.

1.2                                                  PROBLEM STATEMENT

Our world is dealing with a crisis — mountains and mountain of waste. At the same time, the worry of fuel shortages is also rising which also affects our economy at large. Landfills are particularly problematic. Not only are they an eyesore, as waste breaks down on a landfill, gases such as methane and dioxins are released, along with a toxic liquid known as leachate. Leachate has the potential to contaminate soil, water, plants, and food. This study is to address the issue of waste and how waste can be use to produce fuel (electricity) thereby reducing the level of landfill.

1.3                                     AIM AND OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

The main aim of this study is to carry out a research on the investigation of the status of waste-to-energy solutions, and how waste could provide energy in place of fossil fuels. The objective of this work is:

• Reduce the volume of waste and hence reduce the volume requiring disposal in landfill;
• Reduce the biodegradable fraction of waste to zero, and
• Produce a useful commodity (typically electricity and/or heat) from non-recyclable waste.

1.4                                                PURPOSE OF THE STUDY

The main propose of this work is to learn how municipal waste can be use to produce electricity.

1.5                                                 BENEFIT OF THE STUDY

The benefit of waste to energy includes landfill reduction, avoidance of landfill tax and charges, and of course, renewable energy. Unlike fossil fuels, waste is not going to drop in availability. Bioenergy consult points out that, while more than 50% of waste is burnt for energy, it is a “short carbon cycle” that means the original matter doesn’t contribute to climate change originally. In contrast, long carbon cycles like plastic have already contributed to climate change in their creation and burning them for energy would offset some of that carbon cost.

1.6                                    ADVANTAGES OF WASTE TO ENERGY

The key advantage of WTE is that, in addition to serving the waste management community as an efficient final disposal method, it also contributes to the energy sector by being a source of energy. It is even more attractive as a source of renewable energy, because we have the option to make the process carbon neutral by restricting incineration to non–fossil fuel–derived waste material. From the environmental implications perspective, this carbon neutrality helps WTE to outperform landfilling in the waste management sector and coal- or oil-based energy production in the energy sector.

1.7                                             RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

In the course of carrying this study, numerous sources were used which most of them are by visiting libraries, consulting journal and news papers and online research which Google was the major source that was used.

1.8                                     PROJECT ORGANISATION

The work is organized as follows: chapter one discuses the introductory part of the work,   chapter two presents the literature review of the study,  chapter three describes the methods applied, chapter four discusses the results of the work, chapter five summarizes the research outcomes and the recommendations.