Comparative analysis of waste-to-energy alternatives for a low-capacity power plant in Brazil

Abstract

The Brazilian National Solid Waste Policy has been implemented with some difficulty, especially in convincing the different actors of society about the importance of conscious awareness among every citizen and businesses concerning adequate solid waste disposal and recycling. Technologies for recovering energy from municipal solid waste were considered in National Solid Waste Policy (NSWP), given that their technical and environmental viability is ensured, being the landfill biogas burning in internal combustion engines and solid waste incineration suggested options. In the present work, an analysis of current technologies and a collection of basic data on electricity generation using biogas from waste/liquid effluents is presented, as well as an assessment of the installation of a facility that harnesses biogas from waste or liquid effluents for producing electricity. Two combined cycle concepts were evaluated with capacity in the range 4-11 MW, gas turbine burning landfill biogas and an incinerator that burns solid waste hybrid cycle, and a solid waste gasification system to burn syngas in gas turbines. A comparative analysis of them demonstrated that the cycle with gasification from solid waste has proved to be technically more appealing than the hybrid cycle integrated with incineration because of its greater efficiency and considering the initially defined guidelines for electricity generation. The economic analysis does not reveal significant attractive values; however, this is not a significant penalty to the project given the fact that this is a pilot low-capacity facility, which is intended to be constructed to demonstrate appropriate technologies of energy recovery from solid waste.

Improving waste incineration CHP plant efficiency by waste heat recovery for feedwater preheating process: energy, exergy, and economic (3E) analysis

“…On the other hand, waste-feed power plants are so popular in many of the developed countries [12]. The main reasons for this are that incineration of waste not only is a good and environmentally friendly alternative for traditional waste disposal methods but also it can prepare free energy for power and heat production [13]. Such power plants mostly come in hybrid heat and power production form (CHP plants).…”

A PESTLE Analysis of Biofuels Energy Industry in Europe

“…Several other limitations regarding the sustainability of the production, including the competition of feedstock cultivation with the food industry, create difficulties to achieve the short-term production goals of biofuels set by the European Commission [18][19][20][21][22][23]. This results in the need to develop standard production practices as well as licensing and certification of biofuel manufacture, so that all relevant environmental and social impacts can be regarded [24][25][26][27]. To create such production standards, the governing organizations, which are the European Commission and the governments in Europe, need to understand the production processes and its impact on sustainability.…”

Energy, Exergy, Economic, Environmental (4e) Analysis of Hybrid Systems for Electricity Generation From Municipal Solid Waste and Natural Gas

“…Gasification using engines will not raise the efficiency considerably and for small sizes, a gasifier with engines is more efficient than a boiler with Rankine cycle, but for larger sizes the boiler system is slightly better [13]. Studies comparing conventional incineration with gasification such as [14,15] conclude that, in terms of energy performance, they are very similar. Another issue regards the choice of the waste combustor type.…”

“…-Ferreira & Balestieri [15] present, a comparative analysis of waste-toenergy alternatives for a low-capacity power plant in Brazil. Leme et al…”

“…Ribeiro & Sioen [6] [15] make a comparison between WTE-GT and gasification. Leme et al [47] confront biogas-fueled systems and MSW incineration.…”