Design of Production of Energy from Household Waste to a Sustainable Energy Source - Report Example

DESIGN OF PRODUCTION OF ENERGY FROM HOUSEHOLD WASTE TO A SUSTAINABLE ENERGY SOURCE IN THE AN MINH DISTRICT GROUP MEMBERS Table of Contents 1.0 Introduction 1 1.1 Justification 1 1.2 Aim 1 1.3 Project Scope 1 1.3.1 Inclusions: 1 1.3.2 Exclusions: 2 1.3.3 Assumptions: 2 1.3.4 Constraints: 2 1.4 Purpose of the Report 2 2.0 Problem Description 2 3.0 Evaluation of Alternatives 3 4.0 Design Concept 6 4.1.1 Gasification 6 4.1.2 Direct Combustion 7 4.2 Requirements of the design 8 4.3 Model Construction 8 4.4 Production costs 8 5.1 Feasibility 9 6.0 Conclusion 11 7.0 References 11 8.0 Appendix A: Reflection of Project Management 13 1.0 Introduction 1.1 Justification Energy is important in supporting the rural community achieve employment, growth and sustainability objectives. High gas and oil prices can pin a country in a corner forcing it to depend on imported energy. This project plan is a response to this challenge and aims to reduce dependency on energy importation by increasing energy supply, stimulating growth, increasing sustainability and jobs. 1.2 Aim The aim of this project design is to provide full utilization of household waste by implementing a bioenergy plant thus stabilizing energy needs within the. 1.3 Project Scope The project design is for production of bioenergy in An Minh district, Vietnam through implementation of a bioenergy plant. It includes the following: 1.3.1 Inclusions: Environmental benefits and stability Uses of energy supply (e.g. Mobile phones and light sources) Economic environment Plant establishment costs 1.3.2 Exclusions: Housing structure Cultural background Revenue acquired 1.3.3 Assumptions: Power source will work in all weather conditions Government will provide funding and land to create crops 1.3.4 Constraints: Coordinating inflow of biomass fuel supplies Costs of building and maintaining plant Community knowledge of constructing and maintaining plant 1.4 Purpose of the Report The this report is to emphasize on effectiveness of generating energy from household waste by implementing a bioenergy plant to serve energy needs of people as well as to sustain the environment of An Minh District in Vietnam. 2.0 Problem Description Energy plays a very crucial role in providing services to meet basic needs of people especially light and heat motive power. Activities that depend on access to energy services are public services like communication, education and healthcare, commerce and business. If this energy supply is inadequate or absent it may bring about a decline in health, economic, social and rapid development. Electricity in Vietnam covers 80-90% households connected to the power source, which is predominantly used for powering televisions, charging phones and lighting. Currently, electricity in Vietnam is powered by petroleum. Electricity charges per household are approximately 100,000 VD, with prices ranging from 3000 – 5000 per KwH. Connection fee is at a maximum rate of 750,000 VD. This is very expensive for households, thus a need for another effective alternative of generating and supplying affordable energy that can serve all households. The pattern of energy consumption also shows of the total world’s energy 90% is provided by conventional energy and fossil while only 10% is generated from biomass. This results into natural disasters like competition for energy resources worldwide and global warm. The fossil fuels are natural gas, oil and coal and as sources of energy, their application is not sustainable because of their depletion and emission of greenhouse gases into the environment. Green house affects human life and the environment, and also contributes to global warming. In this case, renewable sources of energy like biomass are options that are needed to improve the situation of the environment. 3.0 Evaluation of Alternatives The alternatives for the design of energy production were biomass plant and petroleum. The criterion used to gauge the viability of a particular design was as follows: 1. Cost The amount of resources used as well as the cost of planning, buying the plant and implementing it including the cost of workers should not be too costly to outdo the benefits anticipated. 2. Operate in all weather The design should be able to operate in all weather in terms of easy transportation, availability of resources and supply of energy (rainy seasons and dry seasons). 3. Environmental impact reduction The design should have an intention of creating a sustainable environment through reduction of pollution, reducing acidic rain and global warming. 4. Supply Stability There should be no on and off supply of energy for those using it because of a failure in plant operation or supply of raw materials. 5. Amount of Energy Produced The energy produced should be enough to serve over 200,000 homes in the area without running short. 6. Easily Implemented The design should be easy to implement in terms of technicalities, training of staff and maintenance. 7. Economical The cost of energy should be affordable to all households using it. The connecting fee and energy charges should be reduced by at least 40%. The rating of alternatives was according to their ranking of a scale of 1-5 with a rating of 1 being ‘strongly disagree’, 2 being ‘agree’, 3 being ‘possibly’, 4 being ‘agree’ and 5 being ‘strongly agree’. 5 Strongly Agree 4 Agree 3 Possibly 2 Disagree 1 Strongly disagree A rating of 5 means 5 points while a rating of 1 means 1 point. 5 is the highest while 1 is the lowest. Criteria Petroleum Plant Biomass Plant Low Cost 3 5 All weather 4 4 Efficiency 4 3 Environmental impact reduction 2 5 Supply Stability 5 4 High Amount of Energy Produced 5 4 Easily implemented 3 4 Economical 2 4 Total Points 28 33 The cost of energy production by use of petroleum plant is over 50% the cost of biomass plant. The raw materials needed for biomass plant is readily available, as well as workers. Both plants can operate in all weather, but can be interfered with very heavy rains or storms. The impact biomass plant has environment is highly impressive compared to petroleum plant. Biomass reduces pollution in the environment by using waste as raw materials. It also reduces global warming and acidic rain. The stability of energy supply for petroleum plant is higher than biomass plant, but with all measures taken, it can be as stable as petroleum plant. Petroleum plant produces a large amount of electricity compared to biomass plant but only with slight difference. Biomass plant is easily implemented and easily maintained. It is also economical in that its cost is very low and the price of energy and connecting fee is very low, thus making it very affordable. 4.0 Design Concept The project design is direct combustion and gasification, with the latter also known us thermo-chemical process. 4.1.1 Gasification Energy is obtained in a gaseous form from solid matter. Thermo decomposition of organic matter takes place where there is limited oxygen or air supply. Combustible gases are produced and therefore converting organic material into a gaseous form. Gasification technology is more efficient for energy recovery especially generation of electricity. Efficiency is increased to about 47%. Gasification technology provides power delivery in small-scale plants for small-scale industry and villages. The appropriate technology is represented in small-scale plants as it is cheaper and easy to access spare parts and repairs, which can take place on site. Gasification converts the resources into combustible gas, similar to natural gas, and captures 65 – 70% of the energy. The gas produced can be used in place of petrol and reduces the output of power of the car by 40%. Biomass sources include waste, wood, garbage, alcohol fuels and landfill gases. 4.1.2 Direct Combustion Direct combustion of biomass involves fuel wood burning to generate power, heat or a combination of heat and power. It is the oldest form of combustion that people used and involves the use of solid fuels with interaction of mass and thermal fluxes. It is the combustion of materials and plants capturing energy stored in resources of about 20-30%, which can be increased through cogeneration. Biomass is burnt in boilers to generate high pressure steam, which turns a turbine that is connected to a generator. The steam triggers rotation of the turn, turning the generator and produces electricity. 4.2 Requirements of the design The design must clear the following requirements: 1. Stable supply- Since biomass is seasonally unstable, stable energy supply is very vital. 2. Environment impact reduction – There should be high reduction of emitted gasses like sulfur oxides, nitrogen oxides and carbon dioxide. 3. High efficiency should be maximized. 4. Its process should not be costly 5. It should easily be implement 4.3 Model Construction The following is what is needed for the design in production of bioenergy: a. Air b. Gasified c. Boiler d. Combustible biomass materials. 4.4 Production costs The production of cost of biomass energy will be as follow: Building and installation cost: $ 719.3 million (USD) Staff annual cost: $ 8.5 million (USD) Spares and other consumable costs: $ 21 million (USD) Yearly cost of running: $ 126.5 million (USD) Revenue produced: $ 6.1 million (USD) per year 5.1 Feasibility 5.1.1 Environmental Gasification technology improves quality of air and provides green power at an averagely lower cost. Substituting of biogas for coal percentage reduces mercury, Nitrogen oxide, carbon dioxide, super dioxide, among other pollutants. 5.1.2 Technical It is feasible to utilize direct combustion for power generation in small-scale systems. This is possible because there are sufficient biomass resources available. The design portrays characteristics of no pollutant in the process of production, technical maturation and no emission of carbon dioxide. 5.2.3 Economical Renewable biomass fuels can be purchase at a low price, providing profitability. The gasification technology uses any biological origin of materials like agricultural residues, wood waste, and yard waste as fuel. Thus, the feasibility of the design portrays the following benefits: Environmental Benefits Biomass energy will reduce the acidic rain, climate change and air pollution brought about by fossil fuels. Biomass reduces up to 90% of carbon dioxide emissions while significantly reducing sulfur dioxide and other pollutants. Water pollution will also be reduced as fewer pesticides and fertilizers are used for growing energy crops. Biomass crops are better for wildlife use rather than food crops, and they attract various mammals and birds because they are native plants. Biomass energy also promotes environmental sustainability in that unused land can be used to grow biomass crops. Regrowth of crops is also created without decreasing nutrient and water resources. The carbon dioxide released can be used to re-create and grow more crops without exceeding gas intake of plants. Economic Benefits The bioenergy plant that will be implemented will generate well-paying jobs in operation and construction of the plant and when collecting and transporting biomass material for the people in the community. The plant will support businesses and industries in the area: biomass energy produce will assist in stabilizing forestry and timber industry by availing demand for biomass material which will enable transporters, harvesters, processors and loggers to make investments. The facilities of biomass will increase the local tax base of the community. The advantage of biomass energy compared with other energy fuels is that money spent on biomass material remain in the state, community or region because fuel sources used in biomass plants are within the plant’s 75 miles. The plant will be a 150-MW biomass power facility expected to create over 450 construction jobs, 50 direct full-time operational jobs and approximately 800 indirect jobs. The total cost of biomass plant is $ 875.3 million (USD), while the total cost of petroleum plant is $ 4 billion (USD), making the biomass energy production cheaper. Social Benefits Many areas of a country face shortfalls of power supply when the demand for it increases, resulting in rise in electric prices and blackouts. Biomass energy production addresses this problem by providing electricity that is environmentally sustainable, domestically produced, dispatchable, economically competitive and reliable. 6.0 Conclusion Biomass energy production is less costly and has a greater positive impact on the environment, and is economically attractive to the users of energy. 7.0 References Murphy, JD & McKeogh, E 2004. Technical, economic and environmental analysis of energy production from municipal solid waste. Renewable Energy, vol. 29, no. 7, pp 1043–1057, viewed 27 March 2011, via Science Direct. Hui, S. C. M. (1997). From renewable energy to sustainability: the challenge for Hong Kong, In Proc. of the POLMET '97 Conference, Hong Kong Institution of Engineers, Hong Kong, pp. 351-358. Kothari, R, Tyagi, VV & Ashish, P 2010. Waste-to-Energy: A Way from Renewable Energy Sources to Sustainable Development, Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 14: 3164–3170. Lewandowski, Weger, J, Hooijdonk, A, Havlickova, & Faaij, A, 2006, The Potential Biomass for Energy Production in the Czech Republic, Biomass and Bioenergy 30: 405–421. OECD/IEA Report, 2006, Energy for Cooking in Developing Countries. Panwara, NL, Kaushik, SC & Kotharia, S 2011, Role of Renewable Energy Sources in Environmental Protection: A Review, Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 15: 1513–1524. Tuhkanen, S, Pipatti, R, Sipilä, K & Mäkinen,T 2000, The effect of new solid waste treatment systems of greenhouse gas emissions. Fifth International Conference on Greenhouse Gas Control Technologies (GHGT-5). Cairns, Australia. 8.0 Appendix A: Reflection of Project Management Project management is a discipline that involves knowledge and skills in achievement of project goals through project activities. Control of risks, quality, costs, and project scope is highly involved in project management processes. Project management involves (i) planning of the project and establishing its processes, (ii) organizing of resources like facilities, equipment, finances, and materials and coordinating work and resources, (iii) Leading by assign right personnel to the right job, motivating workers and setting the goals of the project, and (iii) Controlling by evaluating the progress of the project when requirement. The success of the project was in meeting the laid down deadline, even though the team faced various challenges regarding the same. The team achieved this by establishing goals and objectives of the project. The team also understood what the project involves including the smallest details. The resources were mapped with requirements to ensure tasks were well divided. The project schedule and budget was established and potential risks identified and contingencies created to deal with them. Tasks and responsibilities were assigned to team members and owners of tasks clearly defined. The main tasks were then broken down to small tasks and arranged in order of occurrence. Too many meetings were to be avoided though it became a challenge. The successes and failures of the project were document to be used in future projects. Clear communication was established to avoid misunderstandings between the team and issues were dealt with and brainstormed immediately they occurred to provide solutions. The most difficult thing in managing this project was the fact that the team spent too much time in meetings updating each other on the project status. The team members kept meeting to update the coordinator on their tasks even when they had not spent much time executing those tasks. The coordinator was thus forced to spend much time updating the project program on the status, instead of thinking of other areas of concerns. To avoid this in future a project software solution that is web-based will be used to allow the reporting of project activities and tasks by team members throughout. Read More