ENERGY FROM WASTES REVOLUTION

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................. 2

2. ENERGY FROM WASTES REVOLUTION ....................................................... 3

2.1 WAYS OF CONVERTING WASTE TO ENERGY ...................................... 3

2.1.1 ANAEROBICS REACTIONS.............................................................. 4

2.1.2 GASIFICATION .................................................................................. 4

2.1.3 THERMAL HYDROLYSIS .................................................................. 4

2.1.4 FERMENTATION ............................................................................... 4

2.1.5 MICROBIAL FUEL CELL ................................................................... 5

2.2 HOW ENERGY FROM WASTE WORKS? ................................................ 5

2.3 SWEDEN TOWARDS ZERO WASTES..................................................... 6

2.3.1 INCINERATIONS PLANT IN SWEDEN ................................................. 7

2.4 BENEFITS OF WASTE TO ENERGY PLANTS ........................................ 8

3. CONCLUSION ................................................................................................. 8

4. REFRENCES ................................................................................................... 9

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1. INTRODUCTION

Recently, wastes and residuals are increasing rapidly throughout the year. As we
know, waste and residuals undeniably part of human society. As a result, from the
increasing wastes and residuals in the world, this accumulation might cause several
problems to our world. These problems include the environmental and health issues.
In other hands, the safety hazards problems also can occur due to the increasing
wastes and residuals. Furthermore, these problems also can prevent the sustainable
development in terms of resource recovery and recycling of wastes materials.

One of the method that called as waste-to-energy or energy-from waste is the method
that creating energy in the form of electricity and/or heat from the incineration of the
trash. A way that can produce energy from waste should be determine which can
keep our surrounding clean. Nowadays, researchers have developed ways to
produce electricity from the trash or garbage at a very low cost. Gaining energy from
a waste is a method under which energy in the form of heat or electricity is generated
from the wasteful disposal of manure, faeces and many kinds of other organic
materials.

Other than that, it is not just converted into these two forms of energy. It also can form
into a combustible fuel commodity such as methane, methanol, ethanol or synthetic
fuels. In the waste, the carbon sources can be converted into the energy such as
electricity, heat, chill and fuel and even materials using different technologies
including collecting and converting current landfill gases, wet or dry anaerobic
digestion to biogas, incineration, gasification and pyrolysis.

From our study, Sweden has been one of the pioneers in waste management and
resource recovery with more than 30 years development. The MSW of 150,000,000
inhabitants (with a typical composition and amount similar to the Nordic European
countries) can be converted to about 1,000-5,000 MW electricity, depending on the
technology used.(Lee, 2015). The different principles will be used to convert the
organic waste into the usable form of energy.

Seven pounds per person is an average for generation of trash in US per day and
approximately 390 million tons of trash per year. (Devendra & Manjunathachari,
2015). The wastes that had been accumulate in homes and businesses will be
collected by specific company or agency such as Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) or
any agency on the weekly basis and will be usually send straight to a landfill. In the
landfill, the hole is dug in the ground and lined up with the man-made liner.

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2. ENERGY FROM WASTES REVOLUTION

In this world, people produce more than 2 000 000 000 tons per year of municipal
wastes waste (MSW). All of the wastes come from companies, agriculture forestry
and others. These wastes usually will be landfilled. (Figure 2.0.1). The accumulation
of solid wastes and emissions from the landfills in developing countries are major
problems that grow in line with the improvement of the welfare in these countries. If
the wastes are correctly managed, these wastes can be valuable reserve to create
certain materials and energy. The throw-away minded and accumulation of wastes
cause the big problems to our environmental problems, health issues and safety
hazards. This problem also can prevent the sustainable development in term of
resource recovery and recycling of waste materials.

Figure 2.0.1: Diagram of wastes that had been landfilled.

2.1 WAYS OF CONVERTING WASTE TO ENERGY

There are a few methods or ways that can be used to convert waste to energy such
as anaerobic digestion, gasification, thermal hydrolysis, fermentation and microbial
fuel cell. Waste to energy actually a very good innovation which can make our world
and future more clean and green. The number of waste also can be reduced.
Researchers were doing the research on how to convert waste into energy.

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2.1.1 ANAEROBICS REACTIONS

Anaerobic reactions will be take place when the hole is filled with the trash. In the
anaerobic reaction, this reaction will be break down the waste and producing methane
gas. When the landfill is fully pack, it is covered to restrict the water from seeping into
it. Burning the waste and converting it into heat energy is the oldest method used, but
it still not the best method as it can damage the air quality. Anaerobic digestion is
used in order to overcome this problem where the garbage is converted by making
our bacteria friends do the dirty works into fuel.

2.1.2 GASIFICATION

Gasification also is one of the method that had been identified by the researchers to
convert waste to energy. For this process trash is zapped and vaporized at 10,000
degrees Fahrenheit in the converter for getting synthetic gas that can supply the
powers for turbine and produce steam to create electricity.

2.1.3 THERMAL HYDROLYSIS

Besides gasification and anaerobic digestions, thermal hydrolysis is also one of the
way that can help to convert waste to energy. In this process garbage will be boiled
to generate a biogas, which is used to produce electricity.

2.1.4 FERMENTATION

Fermentation is one of the oldest technologies humans are using on this earth. For
this technology fermentation of biomass waste is done to create ethanol is the same
process by which we make wine. Other than that, fermentation also can used to
produce butanol. Pyrolysis is an extended kind of thermal technology under which
trash is heated up in an oxygen-depleted environment in order to decompose waste
and produce a gas that can be used as fuel.

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2.1.5 MICROBIAL FUEL CELL

Another way to produce energy from the waste is via microbial fuel cell. This method
can create electricity by converting the chemical energy content of organic matter.
This is done through catalytic reaction of microorganisms and bacteria that are
present in nature. This technology could be used for power generation in combination
with a waste water treatment facility (Min, Cheng, & Logan, 2005).

2.2 HOW ENERGY FROM WASTE WORKS?

The procedures to convert waste into energy are shown below.

1) Municipal waste is delivered to the facilities and stored in a bunker.

2) The waste is transferred to a combustion chamber where self-sustaining
combustion is maintained at extremely high temperatures. It maintains the
building around the tipping and bunker area under negative pressure and use
this air in the combustion process to control odour.
3) The heat from the combustion process boils water.
4) The steam from the boiling water is used directly, or more frequently and the
steam drives a turbine that generates electricity.
5) Electricity is distributed to the local grid.
6) Ash from combustion is processed to extract metal for recycling. It is then
combined with residue from the air pollution control process (see items 9 and
10).
7) The combined ash is either disposed of in a monofill (where only ash is stored)
that receives only that waste, used as cover material at a conventional landfill,
or landfilled with other waste.
8) All gases are collected, filtered and cleaned before being emitted into the
atmosphere. We manage gas from the combustion process with state-of-the-
art air pollution control technology that operates to state and federal standards.
9) We control emissions of particulate matter primarily through a baghouse
(fabric filter).
10) We monitor criteria and other pollutants and operating parameters to ensure
compliance with permit condition.

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2.3 SWEDEN TOWARDS ZERO WASTES

Sweden is one of the country that towards zero wastes. From the Sweden’s view
about waste management, Sweden takes a holistic approach and acknowledge the
complexity of the issues of wastes. From this point, people can see that Sweden really
takes seriously about the wastes issue. It is not a problem to be fixed quickly, and
policies, regulations and actions must be taken at all levels of society and be adapted
to regional and local needs. By consider all the economic incentives likes garbage
collection fees, with easy access to recycling stations and public awareness
campaigns, Sweden had decided to begin this process more than 30 years ago, and
got high recycling rates. Sweden really banned the landfilling of the combustible waste
in 2002 and the organic waste in 2005.

Nowadays, Sweden’s citizen household mostly do recycle, reused and used the
source of materials and energy. In 2014, Sweden do recycle of 96% of all glass
packaging, 95% of metal, 86% of corrugated cardboard and 80% of electronic waste.
Besides that, for the wastes that cannot be recycled will be recovered via other ways.
For example, the wastes that cannot be recycle usually to local economic benefit, via
biological treatment to produce the compost, fertilizer and biogas. Moreover, it also
can be created via thermal treatment which can create central heat and electricity.
Furthermore, for the residuals and wastes that had been created by forestry,
industries, municipalities and agriculture are usually in large amounts.

In Sweden, at the fifty percent of the household wastes will be burned to produce
energy in the incineration plants. The waste is relatively cheap fuel and Sweden has,
over time, developed a large capacity and skill in efficient and profitable waste
treatment. In 2014, Sweden even imported 2.7 million tonnes of waste from other
countries. Remaining ashes contain 15 per cent of the weight before burning. Metal e
are separated and recycled from the ashes that had been get. Meanwhile for the rest,
likes porcelain and tile, that do not burn, is sifted to extract gravel that is used in road
construction. About one per cent still remains and is deposited in rubbish dumps.The
smoke from incineration plants consists of 99.9 per cent non-toxic carbon dioxide and
water, but is still filtered through dry filters and water. The dry filters are deposited.
The sludge from the dirty filter water is used to refill abandoned mines.

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2.3.1 INCINERATIONS PLANT IN SWEDEN

The important factor that need to decide whether the waste should be incinerated or
digested is the amount of water in the waste that affects the energy contents. When
the wet is too wet, the energy should be added so that the energy value for the
incineration will be more. In this case, the waste has negative energy value.
Therefore, the dry wastes are generally passed to incineration, while the wet wastes
go to anaerobic digestion. Currently, there are twenty-nine incinerators in Sweden
that burn about 3.82 million tons wastes and produce 13.1 TWh energy. The
incinerator that located in Borås used about 300 tons/day wastes and burn it in two
40 MW incinerators and produce both electricity and heat. The wastes are incinerated
and make a flue gas with more than 800 ºC temperature. The energy is used to
produce high pressure steam, which pass through two turbines and produces
electricity. The rest of the energy which from the lower steam pressure is used to heat
up warm water that takes the energy to the city by pipelines for heating the houses
and also warm water of the households.

Figure 2.3.1: Diagram of fluidized bed incinerations plant in Borås, Sweden.

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2.4 BENEFITS OF WASTE TO ENERGY PLANTS

There are a few benefits that can get from waste to energy plants.

a. Majority of waste that would normally go into landfill sites can be re-used.
b. The fuel obtains is cheaper.
c. There will always be a reliable source of fuel as people will always waste.
d. Current landfill sites can be mined out and the landfill material used as fuel.
e. Eco-friendly in nature.
f. Recycling and recovery, both are possible.
g. Reduction in carbon dioxide.
h. Creation of new local job.

3. CONCLUSION

Sweden generates large quantities of solid waste, which can be used to our
advantage to generate much needed electricity. Furthermore, solid waste is organic
in nature. This is the part of the waste that undergoes the least amount of recycling,
under the present municipal system. Recycling in Sweden may be seen to be
expensive or cumbersome, but if the organic waste could be used to generate
electricity, the process would become cost effective and popular. The anaerobic
digestion will lead to the production of methane from the organic waste. This is a very
valuable fuel for electricity generation which is an inexpensive source. As a
conclusion, in my opinion, wastes as energy revolution is one of the great technology
that can make our world green and free from wastes.

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4. REFRENCES

Journals
Devendra, M., & Manjunathachari, K. (2015). Solar DC Microgrid for Rural
Electrification: A Case Study. International Advanced Research Journal in
Science, Engineering and Technology (IARJSET), 2(1), 1–5.
https://doi.org/10.17148/IARJSET

Lee, S. (2015). Energy Generation from Waste Sources. Handbook of Alternative

Fuel Technologies, (January 2010), 542.
https://doi.org/doi:10.1201/9781420014518.ch13

Min, B., Cheng, S., & Logan, B. E. (2005). Electricity generation using membrane
and salt bridge microbial fuel cells. Water Research, 39(9), 1675–1686.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.watres.2005.02.002

Websites
1. Sweden is Turning Trash into Electricity So Fast It's Now Importing Garbage
From the UK - Mpora. (2017). Mpora. Retrieved 22 November 2017, from
https://mpora.com/environment/sweden-turning-trash-electricity-fast-now-
importing-garbage-uk
2. Here’s How Sweden is Recycling 99% of its Waste. (2017). Global Citizen.
Retrieved 22 November 2017, from
https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/sweden-garbage-waste-recycling-
energy/
3. Dirty power: Sweden wants your garbage for energy.
(2017). America.aljazeera.com. Retrieved 22 November 2017, from
http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2015/3/27/sweden-wants-your-garbage-
for-energy.html
4. The Swedish recycling revolution. (2017). sweden.se. Retrieved 22 November
2017, from https://sweden.se/nature/the-swedish-recycling-revolution/