A

REPORT

ON WASTE TO ENERGY

BY

KEVAL BHANUSHALI (1113055) KAUSHIK KRISHNAPRASAD (1113054) KARAN GANDHI (1113050) JESIL GANDHI (1113045) AKSHAY SHARMA (1113009) A report in partial fulfillment of the syllabus Of ENVIRONMENT STUDIES laid down by the University of Mumbai.

2013-2014

CERTIFICATE
Project Entitled: REPORT ON INNOVATIVE WAYS TO SAVE ENVIRONMENT

Submitted By- KEVAL BHANUSHALI (1113055)

KAUSHIK KRISHNAPRASAD (1113054) KARAN GANDHI (1113050) JESIL GANDHI (1113045) AKSHAY SHARMA (1113009)

For the term work in ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES - SEMESTER-V is approved.

Guide:

Examiners
Internal:__________________

---------------------------------(Name of Internal Guide)

External:__________________

________________________

__________________________

Head of Department

Principal

TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract Introduction Waste Management Waste to Energy WTE Technologies -Thermal Technologies -Non-Thermal Technologies Incineration How much MSW can be incinerated?? -Implementation in Plants Advantages of Incineration Disadvantages of Incineration WTE in India Conclusion Reference

Abstract

To obtain a long term solution for proper disposal of solid waste without a severe impact on environment is a major challenge for all cities in the world. Waste-to-energy is the process of creating energy in the form of electricity or heat from the incineration of waste source. This presentation focuses on Waste-to-energy recovery by the process of incineration. This technology is the key in building intelligent cities as it addresses two major issues of modern cities: Waste disposal and Electricity crisis. Many countries like Japan, China, Sweden, Denmark etc. have already realized its importance and will be adopted by all major cities in the near future.

Introduction
Rapid urban growth induces global environmental change, particularly when it comes to production, consumption, and the generation of waste. According to the United Nations, most of the world's population will be living in cities by the year 2030. One of the consequences of this urban explosion is the generation of an enormous amount of waste. Cities worldwide produce much more garbage and other waste than they can manage. Urban India generates 188,500 tonnes per day of municipal solid waste (MSW) at a per capita waste generation rate of 500 grams/person/day. Waste can be disposed of in different forms: open dumping, landfilling, or open incineration. All of these forms cause direct threats to human health through air, water, and/or soil contamination. Other management alternatives are recycling, composting, and waste minimization. Currently, the most widespread waste disposal form is curbside dumping.

Waste Management
Waste management is the collection, transport, processing or disposal, managing and monitoring of waste materials. It relates to the materials produced by human activity and is generally take to reduce effects on health, environment or aesthetics. Waste management methods vary widely between areas for many reasons, including type of waste material, nearby land uses, and the area available. Since dumping waste on the roadside or in other public places is a common practice in many developing countries, street sweeping is one of the important activities in the waste-management system.

Waste-To-Energy(WTE)
Waste to energy in simpler terms, is process of making clean and renewable energy by combustion of solid waste . Not only does it prove to be a great alternative for urban waste management, it also provides energy that can be used in form of heat or electricity. With waste serving as the fuel to run the plant, the earths biodiversity and natural resources will be p reserved. . Waste-to-energy incineration allows us to use waste to generate electricity and reduces the amount of waste that must be landfilled. About 130 million tonnes of municipal solid waste (MSW) is combusted annually in over 600 WTE facilities in 35 nations all over the world.

WTE Technologies
Apart from the most common WTE implementation is by incineration there are a number of other new and emerging technologies that are able to produce energy from waste. Many of these technologies have the potential to produce more electric power from the same amount of fuel than would be possible by direct combustion. They can be classified as: Thermal and NonThermal technologies.

Thermal technologies:

Incineration (produces heat, electricity) Gasification (produces combustible gas, hydrogen ) 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 )

Non-thermal technologies:

Anaerobic digestion (Biogas rich in methane) Fermentation production (examples are ethanol, lactic acid, hydrogen) Mechanical biological treatment (MBT)

Incineration
Incineration is a waste treatment process that involves the combustion of organic substances contained in waste materials. It is the controlled burning of solid waste at extremely high temperatures -- often as high as 2000 F. WTE facilities recover electricity and steam for the communities in which they operate. WTE facilities burn waste in specially designed boilers to ensure complete combustion. The facilities use state-of-the-art pollution control equipment to scrub emissions, preventing them from releasing into our environment. The result is clean, renewable energy. Thus they divert tons of waste from landfills each day, preventing further methane emissions (a greenhouse gas 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide) from decomposing garbage. Waste-to-energy incineration is widely used in Japan, some part of Europe, and elsewhere to reduce by as much 80 to 90% the volume of waste that must be landfilled.

How Much MSW can be Incinerated?

Virtually all of the contents of the municipal solid waste stream are combustible at the high temperature of waste-to-energy incineration. Examples of combu stible material include paper, food and yard waste, plastic, rubber, and wood. Non-combustible materials in the waste stream include glass, metals, ceramics, and clay. The high-temperature of the burning refuse drastically reduces the volume of the solid waste. Incinerators reduce the solid mass of the original waste by 8085% and the volume by 95-96 %, depending on composition and degree of recovery of materials such as metals from the ash for recycling. It also decreases gas and smoke emissions. Plastic scrap and rubber tires have high energy values. For example, the energy content of a kilogram of plastic is more than twice that of a kilogram of some types of coal. And the rest of our trash that cannot be recycled is also a good fuel source. Crucial to the efficient operation of a waste-to-energy incinerator is access to sufficient waste.

Implementation in Plants The process that occurs in a WTE plant is as follows: 1. Trucks dump trash ready for burning. 2. Crane lifts waste from pit up into furnace. 3. Trash is burned at high temperatures. 4. Heavy ash is collected and removed for disposal. 5. Heat from furnace makes steam in boiler. 6. Steam drives turbines and makes electricity. 7. Smoke and gases pass through scrubber to remove dangerous chemicals. 8. Fabric filter removes any leftover tiny ash particles. 9. Light ash is collected after scrubbing and filtering. 10.Remaining gases escape up smokestack.

The heat produced by an incinerator can be used to generate steam which may then be used to drive a turbine in order to produce electricity. The typical amount of net energy that can be produced per tonne municipal waste is about 2/3 MWh of electricity and 2 MWh of district heating. Thus, incinerating about 600 metric tons per day of waste will produce about 400 MWh of electrical energy per day and 1200 MWh of district heating energy each day.

Advantages of incineration

Minimum of land is needed compared to the dimensions of waste disposal sites. The flue gas, which is containing heavy metals and other harmful substances after the incineration process, is cleaned and emitted through the stack in environmentally friendly form. Incineration plants can be located close to residential areas, which are the centres of the production of waste, and this helps to reduce the volume of traffic, pollution, noise and of course the costs for the waste transportation. By using the ashes for environmentally appropriate construction, low costs are provided and furthermore the need for landfill capacity is reduced. WTE combustion decreases the volume of wastes by up to 90%. Such reduction in volume would prolong the life of a 20 years landfill to 200 years. The incineration of waste provides two possibilities of using the produced energy: First of all district heating can be produced with the help of hot water. Secondly current can be generated by means of steam turbines.. As the raw material needed for waste incineration, which is municipal waste, is said to be kind of renewable it helps to reduce the use of fossil fuels or non renewable resources.

Disadvantages of incineration

The air pollution controls required in incineration plants are extremely expensive. Very often up to one half of the costs of a plant are due to air pollution control facilities. As the laws can change and maybe require updates in the air pollution controls this could lead to much higher costs in the future.. The extremely high technical standards of the plants require skilled workers, which leads to the facts that rather high wages have to be paid. The residues from the flue gas cleaning can contaminate the environment if they arent handled appropriately and therefore they must be disposed of in controlled and well operated landfill to prevent groundwater- and surface pollution. Peoples efforts to avoid waste production are minimized when they know that that their waste is burnt in an incineration plant.

WTE in India
Every year, about 55 million tonnes of MSW and 38 billion liters of sewage are generated in the urban areas of India. The average per capita waste generation in India is 370 grams/day as compared to 2,200 grams in Denmark, 2,000 grams in US and 700 grams in China. Urban population growth and increase in per capita waste generation have resulted in a 50% increase in the waste generated by Indian cities within only a decade since 2001. According to the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), there exists a potential of about 1700 MW from urban waste (1500 from MSW and 225 MW from sewage) and about 1300 MW from industrial waste.

Conclusion
As energy prices, population growth, and concerns regarding greenhouse-gas emissions continue to rise, so will the need for alternative energy and alternatives to landfills and other forms of waste disposal systems being used.Waste-to-Energy is an extremely important technology for all the metropolitan cities as every inch of space matters in these areas.

Refrences

Websites http://www.eai.in/ref/ae/wte/wte.html http://www.seas.columbia.edu/earth/wtert/ http://www.swdahsv.org/wtoe.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki http://www.authorstream.com/Presentation/trawor99-310993-presentation-waste-energy-ltcvn-business-finance-ppt-powerpoint/

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Books
1. A report on Sustainable Solid Waste Management in India by Ranjith Kharvel Annepu