Anaerobic Digestion of Municipal Solid Waste of Islamabad – a Techno-economic Feasibility Analysis

Abstract

Renewable energy seems to be the only way towards a sustainable future and solves two major global issues, especially, for the developing countries that are: depletion of fossil fuels due to overuse and abrupt climate change. Pakistan is facing severe energy crisis these days as energy prices are increasing day by day and almost 27% of its population has no access to electricity. Another important problem faced by Pakistan is solid waste management. Proper disposal of solid waste remains a challenge in both urban and rural areas of Pakistan as it is either openly burned or dumped in low lying areas. The alarming increase in population growth and increased economic activity has a negative impact on both energy availability and solid waste management. Energy from biomass is a promising solution to both of these issues and is gaining popularity due to its effectiveness. Municipal Solid Waste of Pakistan has very high potential of producing biomass energy as its major constituent is organic material. The purpose of this research is to analyze the potential of biomass energy from municipal solid waste in Islamabad. This paper compares two waste to energy technologies i.e., Landfill Gas and Anaerobic Digestion and provides a complete techno economic feasibility analysis of both technologies. The results of this research indicate that over the lifetime of 20 years the methane yield for AD and LFG is estimated to be about (126.6.6 to 286.1) x106 m3

/ year and

(1.6 to 39.7) x106 m3

/ year, respectively. The electricity generation potential of the two technologies ranged between for AD (400.3 to 904.8) GWh / year and (3.5 to 84.8) GWh / year for LFG implantation. The Levelized Cost of Energy for digester plant ranges between (0.0312 to 0.0131) USD / kWh while for the LFG plant it lies between (0.0886 to 0.0285) USD / kWh. The Total Life Cycle Cost of AD and LFG plants is estimated to be 208 million USD and 38 million USD.