Techno-economic and Lifecycle Assessment of Transition towards Eco-efficiency Energy Recovery from Brazilian Municipal Solid Waste using Integrated Cogeneration Systems

• Grant number: 22/07856-7
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date: June 01, 2023
• End date: June 30, 2024
• Field of knowledge: Engineering - Mechanical Engineering - Thermal Engineering
• Principal Investigator: Ivonete Ávila
• Grantee: Vinoth Thangarasu
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Engenharia (FEG). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Guaratinguetá. Guaratinguetá , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Currently, the disposal of municipal solid waste (MSW) is a significant issue in developing countries like Brazil. Careless and indiscriminate dumping of these wastes can spread serious diseases. All the existing disposal methods only concentrate on removing harmful pathogens but not on energy recovery. The development of novel and eco-friendly alternative techniques for the treatment of MSW is dispensable. Energy recovery and MSW treatment have been proved to be more energy and ecologically efficient than the current landfill-based management approach. Considering all cases, the best solution will be waste-to-energy conversion to access clean energy supplies. Waste to energy conversion does not only provide energy but also gives the possible solution to the management of MSW with minimum GHG emission. There are currently no energy recovery plants in Brazil because either they are at the design level or waiting for the environmental license. Recently, researchers have studied the possible ways to recover energy or electricity from municipal solid waste through thermochemical, biochemical and incineration methods. In comparison to landfill and incineration, gasification has proven to be a high-potential technology for waste-to-energy recovery and municipal solid waste management (MSW) because it can efficiently convert various types of solid waste (particularly unsorted residual waste) into multiple products such as syngas and char. These advanced technologies will generate substantial heat and energy from waste and minimize significant environmental problems related to solid waste management. Hence, this proposed project emphasizes developing a novel hybrid integrated system combing a gasifier and micro gas turbine (MGT) to overcome the limitations of the individual system and handle solid and liquid wastes. This proposed project will convert municipal solid waste into a value-added product such as syngas, mainly covering H2, CO, CO2, and CH4 with maximum energy recovery through downdraft steam gasification. It also investigates syngas production's environmental effect and sustainability under various control factors. The micro gas turbine (MGT) will be used to convert syngas into electricity. Therefore, an integrated gasification micro gas turbine (IGMGT) power generation system will be recommended to obtain potential energy and electricity from municipal solid waste. The exhaust gas from MGT will be used to distill the wastewater. Also, this present work will carry out a comparative assessment of techno-economic and life cycle analysis of other possible combined heat power systems like gasification-MGT-APC, gasification-micro gas turbine, gasification-IC engines, to convert the MSW into energy, steam and electricity. The best eco-efficiency combined heat and power system will be evaluated in this way.