Centre for Environment and Development as part of the activity on Centre of Excellence of Ministry of Urban Development, Govt. of India has initiated the India Waste Management Portal. Have a look and comment.
http://www.indiawastemanagementportal.org/
Sabu
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Food Waste to Energy Conversion - Indian Perspectives |
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Setu Goyal |
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The problem of waste management runs across geographies and its gravest causal agent, i.e. urbanism, is a global phenomenon. However, its ramifications are relatively more pronounced in developing nations on account of improved standards of living and changing consumption patterns. The growing population and increasing consumer demand is leading to excessive consumption of available resources and generation of tremendous amount of different kind of wastes, which is emerging as a chronic problem in urban societies. Their efficient management is needed at the earliest to avoid numerous problems related to public and environmental health.
The waste management hierarchy suggests that reduce, reuse and recycling should always be given preference in a typical waste management system. However, these options cannot be applied uniformly for all kinds of wastes. For examples, organic waste is quite difficult to deal with using the conventional 3R strategy. Of the different types of organic wastes available, food waste holds the highest potential in terms of economic exploitation as it contains high amount of carbon and can be efficiently converted into biogas and organic fertilizer.
A consistent growth rate of 8 to 10 percent for India is symbolic of its increasing production and consumption trends. The main reasons for such trends have been the increasing disposable incomes and the growing consumerism and urbanism. All this has significantly contributed to the growth and economic development of the country, apart from tremendous increase in waste generation across the country.
The amount of waste generated by any country is directly proportional to its population and the mean living standards of the people. As per the last census of India, the Indian population was 1027 million with about 5161 urban cities and towns contributing up to 28% of the total population. A constant rate of increase of about 30% per decade in the number of town/cities urbanized is something to be considered with utmost diligence, since it is the urban areas, which mostly contribute to the waste generation. The situation grows even starker from the observation that the per capita waste generation in India has been rising by about 1-1.3% annually over the past few decades and the population itself has been rising at an annual rate of 1.2-1.5%.
With organic or food waste being one of the main constituents of the total urban waste generated, it not only makes it essential to seek means for its safe disposal but at the same time, reiterates the huge business potential that ensues the proper utilization of such a widely available potential energy/power resource.
Anaerobic digestion is a proven and commercially available technology to handle wastes having high carbon content. It is widely acknowledged as the best means to deal with organic waste in rural as well as urban areas. One of the major benefits of anaerobic digestion is its almost negative impact on the environment since it saves on emissions which would have been caused if the organic waste was dumped into landfills or an equivalent amount of power would be generated using conventional fossil fuel based resources. Another important feature is its scalability and ability to accept varied types of biomass. World over, the technology has been reaching newer and higher scales, with plants of capacity 300 tonnes per day and above already in operation in countries like Austria, Germany, Sweden and Italy.
The feedstock to be utlized, e.g. organic waste from various sources, is first collected and then passed through a shredder to reduce the minimum particle size. The homogenated mass is then moved to a mixing tank, wherein it is mixed with the recirculated digestate to bring it in contact with some of the wore out/used microbial biomass to increase the rate of biochemical degradation in the subsequent steps and also to make the input feed more acclimatized to the system or process requirements. This homogenate along with the recirculated digestate from the mixing tank, which is responsible for maintaining the adequate solid content in the feed in terms of volume, is then transferred to a storage tank. The main purpose of placing another tank in between the mixing tank and main bio-digester is to maintain an input reservoir in order to account for a few days of unavailability in feedstock. In certain cases of large-scale power application of this technology, waste heat is utilized from the gas engine exhaust and fed to the storage tank to double it up as a pre-digester by facilitating the growth of thermophilic bacterias and elimination of any pathogens.
The feed is then directed into the anaerobic digester. The most commonly used biogas plants for power generation using biogas are the Continiuous Stirred Tank Reactors (CSTR). These reactors involve anaerobic digestion at mesophillic temperaturres and generally have a retention time of about 20-25 days. For smaller scales and other domestic and thermal applications of biogas, other reactors are also commercially available like the floating drum KVIC model, fixed dome type model by TERI, the Janata model or the TERI Enhanced Acidification and Methanation (TEAM) setup which is essentially Upflow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket Reactors (UASB).
The quality and quantum of biogass depends on a variety of factors like the technology used, type of waste, moisture content, volatile matter, ash content, C/N ratio etc. An important consideration while generating power using biogas is the desulphurization of the gas. Anaerobic process results in the formation of H2S which on combustion generates SO2. It is not only corrosive to the gas engine but also harmful to the environment. To tackle this situation, chemical or biological desulphurization is carried out. The chemical desulphurization involves the use of FeCl2 in which chloride is replaced by sulphur owing to the higher affinity of the latter with Iron. Biological desulphurization on the other hand, utilizes the sulphur oxidizing bacteria and converts hydrogen sulphide into elemental sulphur, in the presence of air.
An important component of a typical biogas facility is the gas holder which is used to maintain a buffer between the production and consumption rates of the biogas. The gas is drawn into the gas engine from the gas holder and the waste heat generated is utilized to improve the overall efficiency of the system by directing it through the pre digester and the main digester.
Since the water effluent from such a process is expected to possess high BOD and COD characters, the need of a dedicated effluent treatment plant is ineluctable. This waste water is mainly obtained after the dewatering of the slurry obtained from the above process. The solid content in the slurry increases after going through the de-watering stage in multiple stage screw-presses and it can be sold as high quality compost in the market.
Although the Municipal Solid Waste Management Directive (2000) mandates source segregation of waste which is easily biodegradable in nature, in reality it has not been able to find widespread implementation till now. The major reasons include lack of proper implementation and reporting mechanism, and lower degree of awareness among the people in general. In addition, urban waste in India is also mixed with a huge amount of rubble, construction and demolition waste and other such wastes, which render the food-waste unsuitable for subsequent conversion to energy.
Most of the organic waste generated in the country is either being dumped into the landfills or composted or sent to piggeries. It is a sheer waste of such biodegradable waste capable of generating energy to be sent into the landfills. There it is not only responsible for large scale green house gas emissions, but also becomes a health hazard and creates terrestrial pollution.
There are numerous places which are the sources of large amounts of food waste and hence a proper food-waste management strategy needs to be devised for them to make sure that either they are disposed off in a safe manner or utilized efficiently. These places include hotels, restaurants, malls, residential societies, college/school/office canteens, religious mass cooking places, airline caterers, food and meat processing industries and vegetable markets which generate organic waste of considerable quantum on a daily basis.
The anaerobic digestion technology is highly apt in dealing with the chronic problem of organic waste management in urban societies. Although the technology is commercially viable in the longer run, the high initial capital cost is a major hurdle towards its proliferation. The onus is on the governments to create awareness and promote such technologies in a sustainable manner. At the same time, entrepreneurs, non-governmental organizations and environmental agencies should also take inspiration from successful food waste-to-energy projects in other countries and try to set up such facilities in Indian cities and towns.
Setu Goyal is pursuing Masters Program in Renewable Energy Engineering and Management at the TERI University (New Delhi), and has an entrepreneurial zeal to improve waste management and renewable energy scenarios in developing countries. He can be reached at setu.goyal@gmail.com
Bioenergy: Impediments and Plausible Solutions
Introduction
Biomass resources have been in use for a variety of purposes since ages. Their multitude of uses includes usage as a livestock or for meeting domestic and industrial thermal requirements or for the generation of power to fulfil any electrical or mechanical needs. These resources provide for a clean source of power generation since most of them are considered to be carbon neutral.
Their omnipresence makes them a preferred choice for generation of energy, the world over. Considering the case of India alone, biomass has the potential to cater to nearly 15% of the existing 1,60,000 MW power capacity in the country. However, only about 2500 MW of this potential has been exploited so far. Numerous reasons could be sighted towards this ranging from high technological costs, availability of resources to an ever-troubling supply chain management. This article makes an attempt at collating some of the most prominent issues associated with such technologies and provides plausible solutions to most of them in order to seek further promotion of these technologies.
Roadblocks
The issues enumerated below, are not geography specific and are usually a matter of concern for most of the bioenergy related projects.
1. Large Project Costs: In India, a 1 MW gasification plant usually costs about USD 1-1.5 Million. A combustion based 1 MW plant would need a little more expenditure, to the tune of USD 1-2Million. An anaerobic digestion based plant of the same capacity on the other hand could range anywhere upwards USD 3 Million. Such high capital costs prove to be a big hurdle for any entrepreneur or clean-tech enthusiast to come forward and invest into these technologies.
Not only this, unlike other renewable energy technologies like Solar and wind, bio-energy projects have to further bear the impact of significant operational costs owing to the feedstock, which is not available for free.
2. Technologies have lower efficiencies: In general, efficiencies of Combustion based systems are in the range of 20-25% and Gasification based systems are considered even poorer, with their efficiencies being in the range of a measly10-15%. The biomass resources themselves are low in energy density and such poor system efficiencies could add a double blow to the entire project.
3. Technologies still lack maturity: Poor efficiencies as mentioned above, call for a larger quantum of resources needed to generate a unit amount of energy. Owing to this reason
Investors and project developers find it hard to go far such plants at a larger scale. Moreover, the availability of only a few reliable technology and operation & maintenance services providers makes these, further undesirable. Gasification technology is still limited to scales lesser than 1 MW in most parts of the world. Combustion based systems have although gone upwards of 1 MW, a lot many are now facing hurdles because of factors like unreliable resource chain, grid availability and many others.
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6. High Risks / Low pay-backs: Bio-energy projects are also not so sought after owing to high project risks which could entail from failed crops, any natural disaster, local disturbances etc.
7. Resource Price escalation: Unrealistic fuel price escalation too is a major cause of worry for the plant owners. Usually an escalation of 3-5% is considered while carrying out the project’s financial modelling. However, it has been observed that in some cases, the rise has been as staggering as 15-20% per annum, forcing the plants to shut down.
Plausible Solutions
All the above mentioned issues are causing an impediment to the proliferation of bio-energy technologies. But one needs to keep into consideration the clean nature of these resources. The benefits which accompany their utilization are not only restricted to the amount of emissions saved by avoiding an equivalent generation of power through conventional fuels, but also the sound disposal of resources which are usually considered a waste and are as such of no use to anyone.
The solutions provided below are a consequence of the author’s understanding and experience in the field and present his opinions over this topic. Each issue mentioned above, has been dealt with, in the same order.
1. Large Project Costs: The project costs are to a great extent comparable to other renewable energy technologies, thus justifying the case. Also, people tend to ignore the fact, that most of these plants, if run at maximum capacity could generate a Plant Load Factor (PLF) of 80% and above. This figure is about 2-3 times higher than what its counterparts wind and solar energy based plants could provide. This however, comes at a cost – higher operational costs.
2. Technologies have lower efficiencies: The solution to this problem, calls for innovativeness in the employment of these technologies. To give an example, one of the paper mill owners in India, had a brilliant idea to utilize his industrial waste to generate power and recover the waste heat to produce steam for his boilers. The power generated was way more than he required for captive utilization. With the rest, he melts scrap metal in an arc and generates additional revenue by selling it. .
Although such solutions are not possible in each case, one needs to possess the acumen to look around and innovate – the best means to improve the productivity with regards to these technologies.
3. Technologies still lack maturity: One needs to look beyond what is directly visible. There is a humongous scope of employment of these technologies for decentralized power generation. With regards to scale, few companies have already begun conceptualizing ultra-mega scale power plants based on biomass resources. Power developers and critics need to take a leaf out of these experiences.
The project developer needs to not only assess the resource availability but also its alternative utilization means. It has been observed that if a project is designed by considering only 10-12% of the actual biomass to be available for power generation, it sustains without any hurdles.
5. Non-Transparent Trade markets: Entrepreneurs need to look forward to exploiting this opportunity of having a common platform for the buying and selling of biomass resources. This could not only bridge the big missing link in the resource supply chain but also could transform into a multi-billion USD opportunity.
6. High Risks / Low pay-backs: Bio-energy plants, as discussed above are rife with numerous uncertainties, fuel price escalation and unreliable resource supply to name just a few. Such plant owners should consider other opportunities to increase their profit margins. One of these could very well include tying up with the power exchanges as is the case in India, which could offer better prices for the power that is sold at peak hour slots. The developer may also consider the option of merchant sale to agencies which are either in need of a consistent power supply and are presently relying on expensive back-up means (oil/coal) or are looking forward to purchase “green power” to cater to their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives.
7. Resource Price escalation: A study of some of the successful bio-energy plants globally would result in the conclusion of the inevitability of having own resource base to cater to the plant requirements. This could be through captive forestry or energy plantations at waste lands or fallow lands surrounding the plant site. Although, this could escalate the initial project costs, it would prove to be a great cushion to the plants’ operational costs in the longer run. In cases where it is not possible to go for such an alternative, one must seek case-specific procurement models, consider help from local N.G.O.’s, civic bodies etc. and go for long-term contracts with the resource providers.
Conclusions
Bio-energy projects have been in controversy since ages, with the initial debates raging over the feedstock’s intervention with food available for human consumption. Although these disputations are now a thing of past with such technologies being successful in proving their deftness over the use of a multitude of resources like agro-wastes, animal-wastes, municipal waste, forestry residues and others, which are of no significant use to the mankind.
However, with times, numerous other issues have come into existence, posing as obstacles to the wide-spread implementation of such clean technologies. The entrepreneurs and other clean-tech industrialists need to look beyond the horizons and seek solutions to these issues and help the proliferation of these technologies which can make a big dent in the increasing global power demands.
References
During Monitoring of ambient air quality of Varanasi city I have noted that level of SPM was found above the standards given by CPCB most of the times...
What may be the passible causes???
Dear all,
One again the human soiety at the door step of Dangerous death?
as the recent sunamy of japan questions us again?is the destructive Nuclear power palnts are really needed by the human beings?
now how to solve this problem of radiation. what are the experts opinion on this i want to now?
what are the measures taken by the indian govt to protect our n-plants.
in the name of development we (human beings) spoiling & destorying the natural resources and restroying all other fellow spices.
why cant we go for solar & wind energy and all other natural energies.
The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency has assessed a sugar beet plant a $50,400 civil penalty for air quality and storage tank violations. Inspectors also found violations of storage tank requirements. Those included late and missing tank inspections, corrosion on steel tanks and piping, and unreported leaks and spills of beet juice.
The Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education (ICFRE) has become the first Designated Operational Entity (DOE) in India to be accredited by the Executive Board of the Clean Development Mechanism to validate and certify functions in the sectoral scope of 'Afforestation and Reforestation' (A/R)
for further details refere MoEF/ ICFRE website.
http://www.icfre.org/UserFiles/File/Workshop-Seminar/DOE-CDE-230211.pdf
Dear All,
The positions are based at Hyderabad and the compensation will be the best as per the industry.
If you are interested in this profile kindly send me your updated CV to yogaganapathy.a@proximaglobal.in
Regards
Yoga
If someone looking for latest windrose plots - checkout this website http://windrose.indianclimate.org.
-Sudhanshu
There are millions of animals existing today
But hundreds have gone into extinction
But we know them & see them in movies & museums
There are many animals that are endangered slowly moving towards extinction
The predominant activity being human interference with their habit & habitat
Let us stop this interference with their livelihood and let’s not fight with them
Let’s love them and give them a place to live in their native
Let’s set thing right now because it’s not too late yet.
Hope his school work motivate me to write more
Thanks to my Son Vamsi Krishna & Pallavi Model School
This is a son written for the sake of my son studying UKG as a part of his curricular activity. If anyone can better it it's most welcomed.
Children in the forest gather around
where birds sing songs and nature is undisturbed
During summer, as green as it could be
A place where we can proudly hug the trees.
Hug trees for the fruits & Shade they give,
For giving small animals a place to live
for the priceless gift of oxygen they give to all living beings including us.
Let’s release our greed’s, like a big balloon...
A prayer to reach above the mountains
to citizens of Earth alas we say
Go find a tree love and hug today!
And if a grownup says don’t be a fool!
Or is that what they’re teaching you in school
just read this and simply say
It’s cool to HUG a TREE from time to time!
Children this is how the world can be
Join the boy whose name is simply ME
Lets take our turn to love & hug the trees
Wear Change! Share Change! Sing Change! Bring Change
Raghava
When Warlis (Warlis are tribals that have lived in the Sahyadri mountains in north Maharashtra since time immemorial) need something, they don't go to the supermarket. No, there are no supermarkets where they live. They go to the forest, the bountiful forest. Amazing! Amazing! Everything the Warlis need is available in the forest. Can you believe that??
When they need building materials for the construction of their hut, all they do is chop their way through the green tangled topography. There, they select timbers for the frame structure of their huts. Tell you, they are real pros when it comes to deciding on the best matured trees that will last for generations...
Everything the Warlis use is a product of nature. It is true. If you don't believe me, why not take an inquisitive peek inside the home sweet homes of these amazing forest residents. And here, you are in for a green shock...
From the forest, Warlis also get free food, a wide variety of wild plants that are nutritious, tree-ripened and delicious. But don't be fooled into thinking all free foods from the forest are yummy...
When Warlis want to paint, they don't need to make a dash to Venus Traders for an expansive canvas. The canvas for their art is right at home. It is the wall of their Karvi huts. Guess you anticipated this bit!! Anyway, before they start their pictures, they must give the wall a thorough wash with wet cow dung. No, don't worry; they don't reek of smelly toilets...
To read more, click HERE
Lavassa incident if it is to be covered under the EIA Notification, what were local authorities doing till now?
There are a few aspects highlighted
The policymakers have to realize these things and be rational
My roots with nature are so weak that I fail to understand. . .
A lot is being talked about the sustainable environment in Himalayas and its management these days. There is no doubt that it is getting affected. But how do we manage it?
On this point the question mark exists as previous efforts have yielded little and attempts to improve other services, be it infrastructure, agriculture, irrigation, water supply and to large extent man’s greed to make a few quick bucks fast have seriously impacted the environment in Himalayas.
So what is the way out?
It is projects sustainability so that it runs on its own long after the project is over.
Unfortunately, the word ”sustainability” has become a fad these days. Almost all conservation projects talk about sustainability without knowing how to make conservation projects sustainable in reality.
If we look at various projects be joint forest management, medicinal plants conservation, biodiversity conservation, cold desert development, pasture land development, social forestry and all other conservation projects, most of them are made to look sustainable till the funds keep flowing in and once the project gets over and funds dry up, sustainability also dries up as if affected by a severe drought or washed away by a powerful tsunami.
Some conservationists contend that sustainability of the project is time specific and the project had achieved its target when it was running actively & they are not concerned about it once the project gets over. But is it the power of sustainability or money flow that keeps the project running? Doesn’t sustainability mean long-lasting or is the word directly proportional to money flow?
Alas! What became of the word “sustainability” which was splashed all over the pages when the project proposals were made and highlighted in a big way while submitting the project? Was it then misinterpreted or is it too big a word that anything and everything can hide behind it.
Actually, what all that is needed in the end is a crisp report camouflaging the small achievements as big, juggling with data and a final report declaring that overall goals of the project have been achieved.
Now is any organization ready to open the can of worms of current sustainability of their previous projects ? Has there been any assessment of the post impact of the project, say after 2-3 years after the project was completed to know whether the sustainability is still there or has fizzled out.
Mostly no, because organizations don’t get money to do assessment of projects long completed. They only get money for new projects also no organization wants to count its failures as it dents their standing & maybe prospectus to get future projects also dampens.
So it is time to write a new project proposal, splash it with high- falutin words, some fancy ideas which can be made to look innovative but have loose bonding with real goals and sustainability.
Cheers
MoEF's intervention and the order for demolition of the building proves many things:
The other discussion initiated by Dr Modak has also pointed at the same thing.
Dr Modak has been extremely liberal in views. The issues which have been highlighted to us in the recent past point the finger only at one thing - THE FUTILITY OF PROCESS THAT HAS BEEN PROPAGATED. THE ENTIRE PROCESS HAS TO BE REPLACED WITH A SET OF EMPS RELEVANT TO THE ASPECTS.
We see that only Government officials are at the root of the failures in most cases. This is due to the fact that procedures are stipulated in a manner where people who temper these procedures are not traced easily. The entire process of clearance since 2006 has been seen by project proponets as a hurdle and not as a tool owing to the results.
To put an example one PP got say 27 TORs from X consultant (PP may be a PSU), the other PP received 31 TORs from Y consultant (PP may be a SSI) considered that Y had hired cheapest consultant around. Efforts required to comply would be more or less the same.
Then where is the elite class of consultant required when the result is expected to be the same.
Reduction in procedural intricacies can reduce the fatigue to PP. We need to learn lessons on either sides of the process.
