Municipal Waste to Energy: Conversion through Plasma Arc Gasification

Mahendra Prabhu Kuvettu

V T U 5th SemesterDepartment of Mechanical EngineeringSt. Joseph Engineering collegeMangalore

PLASMA - ARC - GASIFICATION

OF

MUNICIPAL - SOLID - WASTE (MSW)

A Revolutionary & Path-breaking technique of waste conversion into useful energy.

Preface

The Necessity For PLASMA - TECHNOLOGY

Homes, institutions and industries across the world generate thousands of tons of waste daily. Just imagine the amount of accumulations in a span of one year!

Developing countries like India have over 16% of world’s population and just 2% of land area.

There is an emerging shortage of land to be allocated for landfills near populous cities like Mumbai, Bangalore, Delhi, Chennai etc.

There is rising scarcity of electricity generated versus growth in electricity supply capacity across the globe.

Plasma arc technology is a non-conventional & renewable way of generated electricity from discarded waste sans pollution nor damaging the sensitive ecological balance of earth.

Analysis of PLASMA Tech.

Plasma is beyond doubt the fourth state of matter!Consists of ionized gas particulate substances at extremely high

temperatures.At such high temperatures gases attain resistance breakdown and

capability to conduct electric current. Lightning is a very simple and natural illustration from nature.

Prominent charcteristics of PLASMA - ARC

Most hazardous and toxic compounds are broken down to elemental constituents by high temperature.

Organic compounds are readily gasified and melted.

Conversion into fuel gases (hydrogen &carbon monoxide).

Firm, hard and rigid residual materials including inorganic, heavy metals Are converted into reduced vitrified residue which again has many uses.

Torch operates at 100kw to 200mw of electric power with high energy intensity of discharge.

Can be directly operated on pre-existing landfills on a very proficient basis by drilling subterranean boreholes.

Electricity generation capacity versus power generated in KW.

Conclusion- Trigeneration technology is simply the most efficient of all.

Feasibility conclusion: amazingly economically viable process.

Output

Inputs

NOTATIONAL HEAT BALANCE CHART*

* Image sourced from www.emfy.com

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

MSWinclineration

Coal Oil MSW plasma Natural gas

Kgs of CO2/MWH

Conclusion: plasma technology generate less pollutants than supplementary fuels like coal & oil.

An Eco-Friendly process.

Finance & Accounting Human resources

Corporate Board

Production Management

Marketing & PromotionInfrastructure management Research & Development

Chairman

Company’s Administrative Flowchart

Initially a eco feasibility study is conducted. The main promoter is generally the head of the org. and selects an intellectual team. Every successful company need not be established with all these dept.’s at the initial stage esp. human resources. The R&D and technical know-how is sourced from an American NGO. Infrastructure is the initial machine cost, production mgmt. is the wages of the employees and f-a can be done by a local auditing firm.

Out of the initial seed capital 80% comes from a respected VC & rest from the promoters.

Capital allocation.

Direct material cost

Direct labour cost

Direct expensesPrime cost

Production overheads

Factory cost

Administrative overheads

Distribution overheads

Manufacturing cost

Total cost

Profit

Company’s Financial Flowchart

Brief analysis: The direct material cost will be zero since material/scarp is a domestic waste. Collection cost from various locales come under labour cost. Direct expenses involve machines & allies infra. Factory employees are production overhead cost. Administrative overhead include salaries of senior mgmt. The production of useful electricity from waste is manufacturing cost and distributing it among consumers involves distribution overhead costs. To the net production cost a decent profit margin can be added to make the business sustainable.

MSW plasma recycling statistics b/w 1960 and 2007The dependence on plasma MSW technique of recycling is gaining popularity.

Waste-to-energy facility in highly developed Japan.Image sourced from www.google.images.com

MSW plant does not require a massive infrastructure!

14

CONCLUSION

Plasma processing of MSW has unique and unparalleled capabilities incomparable with existing technologies.

It is more cost-effective to take MSW to a plasma facility for energy production than to dump it into landfills.

Plasma processing of MSW has the potential to supply ~5% of world electricity needs. This is equivalent to 25 big size nuclear power plants.

Plasma technologies can create more renewable energy from solar, wind and geothermal energies combined.

When fully developed plasma technologies may become cost-effective advantage to mine existing vast landfills for energy production.

Significantly reduce the MSW waste disposal problem. Reduce inevitable need for massive landfills.

Thanks- a – Lot !

any QUERIES ?

or SUGGESTIONS !

The End