ENERGY

ENGINEERING

BY
L SRI HARSHA
K SAI SIDDHARTHA
UCT,OU.

ENERGY ENGINEERING
Energy engineering or Energy systems is a broad
of engineering dealing with energy efficiency, energy

field

with energy efficiency, energy services, facility management,

plant engineering,
environmental
compliance
and
alternative energy technologies.

Energy Crisis:
With nominal gross domestic product (GDP) of USD 1 847 billion,
India was the tenth largest economy in the world in 2011. In
terms of purchasing power parity (PPP), with constant 2005 USD
3 976 billion, India ranked third after the United States and China
in 2011. However, Indias nominal per-capita income of USD 1

489 remained much lower than other large economies. For

example, it was less than one-third of Chinas per-capita income
of USD 5 430 in 2011.
The NPS projects that Indias demand continues will grow quickly,
reaching 1 464 Mtoe in 2035, increasing by a compound annual
growth rate (CAGR) of 3.1% from 2009 to 2035, which is more
than double the worlds energy demand at a CAGR of 1.3% for
the same period. Indias share in world energy demand increases
from 5.5% in 2009 to 8.6% in 2035. The growth would come
from all fuels. The largest demand growth would come from coal,
almost tripling from 280 Mtoe in 2009 to 618 Mtoe in 2035 at a
CAGR of 3.1%. Oil demand would show a considerable growth
from 159 Mtoe to 356 Mtoe at 3.1%. For natural gas, it would
increase from 49 Mtoe in 2009 to 154 Mtoe in 2035. Nuclear
demand would reach 48 Mtoe in 2035 from 5 Mtoe in 2009 while
renewable demand grows from 2 Mtoe in 2009 to 36 Mtoe. Indias
huge energy demand increase would be based mainly on
hydrocarbons.

Domestic energy production in India grew from 291 Mtoe in 1990

to 502 Mtoe in 2009 at a CAGR of 2.9%. Considering Indias
demand growth at a CAGR of 4% for the same duration, domestic
supply could not keep up with the demand. Biomass was the
largest production source with 46% share in 1990, but dropped
to 33% in 2009. The largest production volume addition came
from coal production, which increased from 104 Mtoe in 1990 to
244 Mtoe in 2009 at a CAGR 4.6%. Coal also represented almost
half of total domestic energy production. The fastest growing fuel
is, however, natural gas, which increased domestic energy
production to 38 Mtoe in 2009 from 10 Mtoe in 1990 at a CAGR of
7.0%. On the other hand, crude oil production growth remained
at CAGR 0.5% for the same period, whilst crude demand
increased by 5.1%.

Waste to Energy:
Waste-to-Energy (WtE) technologies consist of any waste
treatment process that creates energy in the form of electricity,
heat or transport fuels (e.g. diesel) from a waste source. These
technologies can be applied to several types of waste: from the

semi-solid (e.g. thickened sludge from effluent treatment plants)

to liquid (e.g. domestic sewage) and gaseous (e.g. refinery
gases) waste. However, the most common application by far is
processing the Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) (Eurostat, 2013).
The current most known WtE technology for MSW processing is
incineration in a combined heat and power (CHP) plant. MSW
generation rates are influenced by economic development, the
degree of industrialisation, public habits, and local climate. As a
general trend, the higher the economic development, the higher
the amount of MSW generated. Nowadays more than 50% of the
entire worlds population lives in urban areas. The high rate of
population growth, the rapid pace of the global urbanisation and
the economic expansion of developing countries are leading to
increased and accelerating rates of municipal solid waste
production (World Bank, 2012). With proper MSW management
and the right control of its polluting effects on the environment
and climate change, municipal solid waste has the opportunity to
become a precious resource and fuel for the urban sustainable
energy mix of tomorrow: only between 2011 and 2012, the
increase of venture capital and private equity business
investment in the sector of waste-to-energy - together with
biomass - has registered an increase of 186%, summing up to a
total investment of USD 1 billion (UNEP/Bloomberg NEF, 2012).
Moreover, waste could represent an attractive investment since
MSW is a fuel received at a gate fee, contrary to other fuels used
for energy generation, thus representing a negative price for the
WtE plant operators (Energy Styrelsen, 2012).

The following classification illustrates the possible methodologies which can be used
in order to obtain energy from waste.

Of all the processes the most important are

Anaerobic digestion
Refuse-derived fuel

Anaerobic Digestion
Anaerobic digestion is a series of biological processes in which
microorganisms break down biodegradable material in the
absence of oxygen. One of the end products is biogas, which is
combusted to generate electricity and heat, or can be processed
into renewable natural gas and transportation fuels. A range of
anaerobic digestion technologies are converting livestock manure,
municipal wastewater solids, food waste, high strength industrial
wastewater and residuals, fats, oils and grease (FOG), and
various other organic waste streams into biogas, 24 hours a day,
7 days a week. Separated digested solids can be composted,
utilized for dairy bedding, directly applied to cropland or
converted into other products. Nutrients in the liquid stream are
used in agriculture as fertilizer.

The process of anaerobicdigestion consists of:

1. The first step is the decomposition (hydrolysis) of plant or
animal matter. This step breaks down the organic material to
usable-sized molecules such as sugar.
2. The second step is the conversion of decomposed matter to
organic acids.
3. Finally, the acids are converted to methane gas.
Process temperature affects the rate of digestion and should be
maintained in the mesophilic range(95-105 degrres of Farenheit)
with an optimum of 100 degrees farenheit.

Process stages

The key process stages of anaerobic digestion

There are four key biological and chemical stages of anaerobic
digestion:

1.Hydrolysis
2.Acidogenesis
3.Acetogenesis
4.Methanogenesis

In most cases, biomass is made up of large organic polymers. For

the bacteria in anaerobic digesters to access the energy potential
of the material, these chains must first be broken down into their
smaller constituent parts. These constituent parts, or monomers,
such as sugars, are readily available to other bacteria. The
process of breaking these chains and dissolving the smaller
molecules into solution is called hydrolysis. Therefore, hydrolysis
of these high-molecular-weight polymeric components is the
necessary first step in anaerobic digestion.
[21]
Through hydrolysis the complex organic molecules are broken
down intosimple sugars, amino acids, and fatty acids.
Acetate and hydrogen produced in the first stages can be used
directly by methanogens. Other molecules, such as volatile fatty
acids (VFAs) with a chain length greater than that of acetate must
first be catabolised into compounds that can be directly used by
methanogens.
The biological process of acidogenesis results in further
breakdown of the remaining components by acidogenic
(fermentative) bacteria. Here, VFAs are created, along with
ammonia, carbon dioxide, and hydrogen sulfide, as well as other
byproducts. The process of acidogenesis is similar to the way milk
sours.
The third stage of anaerobic digestion is acetogenesis. Here,
simple molecules created through the acidogenesis phase are
further digested by acetogens to produce largely acetic acid, as
well as carbon dioxide and hydrogen.
The terminal stage of anaerobic digestion is the biological process
of methanogenesis. Here, methanogens use the intermediate
products of the preceding stages and convert them into methane,
carbon dioxide, and water. These components make up the
majority of the biogas emitted from the system. Methanogenesis
is sensitive to both high and low pHs and occurs between pH 6.5
and pH 8. The remaining, indigestible material the microbes
cannot use and any dead bacterial remains constitute the
digestate. A simpilfied equation is:

C6H12O6 3CO2 + 3CH4

Environmental
Methane - released to the atmosphere during normal storage
and utilisation of farm slurries. Methane is 23 times more potent
as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide (CO2). Anaerobic
digestion (AD) collects methane and provides a source of
renewable energy that is carbon neutral i.e. provides energy with
no net increase in atmospheric CO2.
Fertiliser - compared to undigested slurry, the nitrogen in
digestate is more readily available as a plant nutrient.
Smell - AD can lower the odour from farm slurries by up to 80%.
Pollution - AD can lower the biological oxygen demand, (BOD - a
measure of the polluting strength of a material) in the feedstock
to less than 40% of that in the digestate. However, BOD of
digestate is still extremely high relative to the discharge
standards for wastewaters.
Pathogens - pathogens in the feedstock, such as salmonella, are
lowered by AD.
Weed seeds - AD kills many weed seeds and hence there is less
need for herbicides.
Plant nutrients - management of plant nutrients is aide by
mechanical separation of the digestate. Plant nutrients in the fibre
fraction can be exported off farm as a soil conditioner, or further
processed into granular organic fertiliser or combustible fuel.
Handling - compared to raw slurry, digestate flows easier and
requires less mixing before spreading.
Grazing - cattle can reject grass spread with untreated slurry;
they do not readily reject grass spread with digestate.

Financial
Biogas gives direct financial returns when used to generate
electricity. Including the value for renewable obligation
certificates (ROCs) further increases these returns. Use of a
combined heat and power (CHP) unit to produce electricity and
hot water is of further benefit, provided the heat produced can be
utilised fully to heat the digester and for export. Biogas can also
be used in modified gas boilers to produce hot water for use on
site, or for export. In addition, biogas can be scrubbed of
impurities and fed into a natural gas grid, or used as a fuel for
cars, buses and trains.

RDF
Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF) is produced from combustible
components of municipal solid waste (MSW). The waste is
shredded, dried and baled and then burned to produce
electricity, thereby making good use of waste that otherwise
might have ended up in landfill. RDF processing facilities are
normally located near a source of Muncipal Solid Waste(MSW)
and, while an optional combustion facility is normally close to the
processing facility, it may also be located at a remote location.

PROCESS
The production of RDF includes a series of steps:
Drying. The partially decayed waste is dried, either under the
sun, by hot air, or by a combination of both. This important step
in the process differs in each facility depending on the investment
or land availability. Solar drying is not possible during rainy

seasons, and most facilities run at a fraction of their capacity

during the rains, sending most of the waste to landfills.
Mechanical drying, on the other hand, requires significant
amounts of energy that could easily render RDF plants
unprofitable without huge government subsidies.
Manual separation. Bulky
items such as large pieces of
wood, rocks, long pieces of
cloth, etc. are removed by hand
before mechanical processing
begins. Equipment involved in
manual separation usually

includes a sorting belt or table.

Handpicking of refuse is perhaps
the most prevalent MSW
handling technique; it is also the only technique for removal of
PVC plastics. Indian laws strictly prohibit thermal destruction of
PVC due to its harmful emissions, but with so many different
forms of PVC in the waste stream it is virtually impossible to
eliminate it.
Screening. Size separation usually happens at two or more
stages in the process. It is done by passing the waste through
trommel screens, most commonly rolling drums with different
mesh sizes. Trommels are attached to the conveyors at various
stages of processing and are inclined to allow oversize materials
to pass along them. Some facilities also include spikes inside the
trommels that act as bag bursters to free items that may be
inside plastic bags

Air separation. In this step, fans are used to create a column of

air moving upwards. Light materials are blown upwards, and
dense materials fall. The air carrying light materials, like paper
and plastic bags, enters a separator where these items fall out of
the air stream. The quality of separation in this step depends on
the strength of the air currents and how materials are introduced
into the column. Moisture content is also critical as water may
weigh down some materials or cause them to stick together. This
is particularly true with waste from the Global South, which
typically contains more than 50 percent moisture.

Size reduction. Two types of devices are commonly used for this
process: flail or hammer mills and shear shredders. Hammer mills
consist of rotating sets of swinging steel hammers through which
the waste is passed, and shear shredders are used for materials
that are difficult to break apart such as tires, mattresses, plastics,
etc. The hammers need frequent resurfacing or replacement.
Both are energy and maintenance-intensive. Hammer mills
shatter items such as fluorescent light bulbs, compact fluorescent
lamps, and batteries. Toxic substances released from these
commonplace domestic items end up in the RDF and compost.

Magnetic separation. Electro-magnets are used in this step so

they can be switched on or off to allow removal of collected
metals. However, not all metals can be removed by magnets.
Stainless steel and copper, for example, are only weakly magnetic
or are not magnetic at all. A further limitation of this technique is
that small magnetic items will not be picked up if they are buried
in non-magnetic materials, and larger magnetic items can drag
unwanted items like paper, plastic, and food waste along with
them.

K S Siva Prasad, chairman, Bangalore Blended Fuels (Pvt) Ltd,

has designed a waste-energy plant to tackle this problem. The
plant that converts municipal solid waste into clean burning
refuse derived fuel (RDF), could handle 700 tonnes of waste per
day and generate 8MW of power.