A unique opportunity to commercialize advanced patented technologies for the treatment of waste to produce energy
Mechanical Heat Treatment Linked through Gasification to
Renewable Energy.
Presented by Neil Roberts
• Find an alternative local solution to large scale waste problems
• Address high transport and rising disposal costs
• Maximise recovery/recycling of saleable products
• Convert biodegradable material into saleable fuel
• Minimise waste sent to landfill
• Linking waste to energy without mass burn
• Reduce emissions
• Provide sustainable energy to local consumers
Market Place Challenges
• Environmental matters are increasingly taking centre stage – and general awareness is growing
• Concerns over global warming and the level of greenhouse gas emissions are growing
• Interest in the concept of recovering energy from ‘wasted resources’ is growing
• Traditional waste treatment technologies i.e. incineration, landfilling , composting and MBT are losing public favour
• Unparalleled opportunities exist for those governments that embrace new process technologies / processes
Background
• In 30 years, 2/3 of the world’s population of 6 billion plus people, are expected to live in urban locations
• Relying solely on the goodwill of busy people to recycle at source is irresponsible.
• Cities are becoming increasingly high rise to accommodate mass urban migration.
• Transient workers = limited environmental awareness
• Energy consumption may increase 50% by 2035
• 70% of energy is consumed in buildings, mainly in AC
• By 2035 only 14% of global energy consumption will be from renewable sources.
ALARMING FACTS
• WM roads, energy, water are integral to the fabric of modern infrastructure its not somebody else’s problem
• Limited waste avoid legislation, cheap landfill and energy, put off high tech private sector investment.
• WM’s not a pot of gold. Private sector investors need a supporting legislative and policy frameworks.
• Sustainable energy technologies are imperative to our cities future success
• Consuming todays mineral resources for traditional power generation is cheaper but at what cost to tomorrow’s society?
• High value "exit outputs" from renewable gas and electricity are going to become increasingly important
Strategic and Legislative Context
• Recycling and energy recovery technologies that don’t solely rely on source segregation and comingled collections
• Traditional “MBT” technologies relying on a consistent flow of costly source segregated / comingled collections in GCC are struggling
• Coherent planning, cohesive thinking, joined-up policy. “otherwise WM will drift on an ad-hoc piecemeal basis.
• To stop building the wrong facilities in the wrong places, they will become disintegrated and stranded.
• Flexible recycling facilities that are not solely reliant on the fluctuation in supply and demand for recovered recylates that are heavily impacted by global economics
Gulf States Need
• New technologies promoting high value exits, i.e. energy-from-waste will replace traditional technologies
• "If Waste management companies don’t move into this space, energy and heating firms will
• The recyclables market is tiny compared to energy, bankers / investors want to see energy side figures
• Investors want 20yr + contracts. 10yrs is too short
• Gate fees must reflect savings to the community, transport, road repairs congestion, landfill.
• Tomorrows winners will be those Governments that encourage joined up thinking between planning depts, power, water companies and consumers.
Commercial drivers
• Waste to energy delivers best value fastest route to divert waste from landfill, minimize transport and reduce the demand on overburdened power stations.
• Waste to district cooling = big environmental win. • Automated solutions are needed that receive mixed
Municipal and Commercial Wastes, recovering sustainable high quality saleable commodities fuels.
• Clusters of pretreatment plants feeding a central co -located energy plant aligned with an end users.
• Sealed or underground collection facilities to prevent scavenging of valued metals, cardboard at source.
• Carbon credits
Key success factors
A unique integration of industrial technologies using unsorted municipal and commercial &
industrial waste
MHT waste treatment
plant
Gasification process
combustion chamber
and boiler or heat
exchanger
waste
Steam for
Heat
Exchanger
Hot air for existing power
stations
Integrated Solutions
Gas
Production
Power Generation
Energy Consumer
Waste Supply
Waste
Process
Fibre Fuel
Production
Steam Generation
Heat exchanger
District cooling chilling
Desalination
MHT processing
plant
Moisture
Recyclates
Biomass fuel
Inert landfill
Municipal solid waste
(MSW)
sort screen shred mix
wet preparation
homogeneous feedstock
hot steam processor sanitised waste stream (mixed)
separation of refined biomass, light plastics; ferrous & non-ferrous metals, mixed plastics, glass, rubble, aggregate and residues
1 2 3
Waste to recyclates and biomass fuel
MHT in enclosed industrial building
MHT chimney stack
Unsorted Municipal Biodegradable waste
Low moisture, high packaging and food waste particularly in highly developed tourism centers. • Paper 18 -25% • Plastic 24 -40% • Organic 22- 45% • Metals 3% • Glass 3- 4% • Textiles 3-8% • Moisture 6%
Typical variances in GULF State Waste Profiles:
Municipal Solid Waste
Bulky/Hazardous items
Textile
Remover Trommel
Shredder
Homogeneous Stockpile
Feed Preparation
On receipt materials are screened and oversize materials are then shredded and homogenized with undersize materials to expose the largest surface area to treatment.
Air
separator
Wet Preparation Drum Patented
Processor
Recirculation
Fans
Emissions Control
Heat source
Burner/Recovered
Processed Material
From
Homogeneous
Stockpile
Heart of the Patented Process
Homogenized waste is wet prepped lifted and fragmented to expose the greatest surface area for heat treatment. Hot air is applied to the moistened materials createsing a hot steamy atmosphere in which the commodities are sanitized and the organics are broken down into unrefined renewable fuels. (waste water can be used)
Mechanical Heat Treatment
THE PROCESS
Standard Post Treatment Separation
Screen Classifier
Ferrous Metals Non Ferrous Metals Optical Sorter
Eddy Current
Granulator
Unrefined
Biomass/fines
Landfill
Mixed
Plastics
Plastic Film/
large card
MHT Sanitized Recyclate and Refined Fuel Products
Patented Biomass Density Separator
Step 1 Step 2
Air
Unrefined Biomass
Glass,
Rubble-
Aggregate
Air
Biomass with
Plastic
Biomass 95 -98%
‘Pure’ Light Plastics
Exhaust
Variable
Control
Refined Products
MHT Refined Fuel Products
Product made to a specific end user specification Proven alternative to fossil fuels or expensive imports Huge source of currently un-used energy, non seasonal
Renewable Electricity - Boilers (Steam Generation) - Gasification (Steam Generation) Green Heat for Energy Intensive Industries - Cement Kilns - Boilers
Road Transport Fuels * - Synthetic Diesel - Bio Ethanol * Dependant upon emerging technologies
Refined Renewable Fuel Products
• Solutions that identify wastes as a valuable raw material resource rather than an unwanted commodity
• Innovative technologies based on proven engineering design, process, systems and equipment in industrial buildings
• Direct acceptance of municipal and commercial waste with no need for pre-sorting or source segregation
• Solution for high rise, transient societies with limited environmental awareness where urbanization is the trend.
• Avoids expensive specialist collection receivers and vehicles. (Massive inefficiencies exist in collection and treatment across municipalities)
• Maximises value added recovery of premium quality reusable, recyclate products and refined consistent, quality biomass fuel
• Overall operating costs lower than other systems
MHT Delivers
• Tailors renewable fuels to precise end user specifications, biomass calorific values of fuels can be varied
• Links the waste recycling and energy sectors • Energy produced by the process fuels is more than 4 times that
consumed – high overall efficiency and positive energy balance • Traditional MBT low value waste refuse derived fuels are
limited to heat generation i.e. cement markets that will be impacted by Carbon Reduction Commitment “CRC”).
• Sustainable markets in the power generation sector to meet growing demand for the renewable fuels
• Greenhouse gas mitigation that address global concerns about carbon emissions
• Recovery rates exceed 90% minimising landfill residues, extending the lifecycle of scarce landfill capacity
MHT Delivers
• Waste collection – conventional
• Waste preparation – conventional shredding plant
• Homogenisation – conventional mineral processing
• Attrition, sanitisation and separation – proven
• Outputs (clean metals and plastics, biomass fuel and
feed to power plant) – proven
• Power generation through gasification/pyrolysis and
steam generation – proven
Linked Proven Technologies
Biomass fuel Gasification process
Syngas
Refined fuel 13-18 MJ/kg
Gasifier Combustion
Chamber
Boiler or heat
exchanger
heat
power
cooling
Biomass fuel to syngas and power generation
Gasification plant
Power Generation – Gasification / Steam Generation
Heat Recovery
Electrical Generation
Refined Products
Gasifier
• Will deliver a sustainable energy economy
• A technically / economically convincing energy solution for a carbon neutral economy.
• Uses chemical reactions at high temperatures, distinguishing it from biological processes such as dry fermentation.
• Converts carbon materials into carbon monoxide / hydrogen.
• Reacts at high temperatures in controlled amount of oxygen.
• Resulting syngas mixture can be used to generate electricity, heat or transformed into a diesel-like synthetic fuel.
• Uses organic materials, neither emits nor traps greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide.
• The secret is in refining the fuel and biomass content to within acceptable tolerance range for gasification.
Gasification
MHT Processing Plant
Landfill
Rec
ycla
tes
Gasifier boiler or power production Plant
Users of Biomass fuels e.g. Power Plants MHT & power
Plants co-located
Commercial & Industrial Solid Waste
Municipal Solid Waste
Modern Integrated Thinking on Best Practice in Waste Management System
Collection, Segregation & Transport
Feed
Preparation
Thermal
Processing
Recyclate
Recovery
Fuel Products
Buffer Store
Heat Generation
Gassifier
Gas Cleaning
Boiler &
Turbine
Heat Recovery
(Condensers)
Recovered Heat
District Cooling Desalination PlantOr
Simplified Process Flow sheet – Waste Processing and Heat Generation
Fuel production circa 63% of waste input If Fuel production 100,000 tonnes Calorific Value Net 14MJ/kg Total energy content 49MW Thermal conversion 68% efficiency Thermal energy potential 33.3 MWth Electrical Conversion 34% efficiency plus grid losses. Electrical energy 11.3 MWe
Thermal recovery of energy is 3* more efficient vis Electrical energy conversion potential
• Steam turbine driven chillers are inherently variable
• Steam designed to satisfy (1/3) of cooling demand = energy costs reduced 10-15% compared with electric chiller plants = 30% reduction in electric demand dedicated to cooling.
• Desalination plants use large amounts of energy and specialized, expensive infrastructure and struggle to deliver water for less than $0.60 per thousand litres.
• Kuwait was first to adopt seawater desalination, linking electricity generation to desalination. Co-generation, re-uses low pressure waste steam from generators to provide energy for the desalination process minimizing energy and costs.
• SO WHY NOT USE WASTES ENERGY TO RUN DESALINATION / AC
Heat exchange benefits compared with generating electricity to run district cooling / desalination