Alternative Energy
Are all the inputs known and accounted for in the financial analysis?
Pivotal Analysis will help you determine the viability of your Waste to Energy projects by building a financial model that is based on realistic inputs and assumptions.
Alternative energies are sources of usable renewable energy such as Biomass which are intended to replace fuel sources without the undesired consequences of the burning of fossil fuels.
Biomass energy, or bio-energy, is the energy stored in non-fossil organic materials such as wood, straw, vegetable oils and wastes from the forest, agricultural and industrial sectors. Like the energy in fossil fuels, bio-energy is derived from solar energy that has been stored in plants through the process of photosynthesis. The principal difference is that fossil fuels require thousands of years to be converted into usable forms, while properly managed biomass energy can be used in an ongoing, renewable fashion.
Municipal solid waste, waste plastics, and sewage sludge can also be considered as biomass. For instance, the decomposition of organic wastes in landfill sites produces methane that can be converted into heat, electricity and possibly fuels.
Waste to Energy involves projects where some type of waste is being processed, manipulated, or changed to produce energy. Extracting light oil from oil sludge waste or heavy oil can also be categorized as a Waste to Energy project.
The challenge is to ensure that the input costs are less than the final net gain from the waste. Pivotal Analysis will help you determine the viability of your Waste to Energy projects by building a financial model that is based on realistic inputs and assumptions.
Municipal solid waste is a mixture of metals, glass, unmixed and mixed plastics, tyres, newspaper or paper and cellulosic waste (e.g. food, paper, yard waste).
Source separation, collection and recycling mechanisms are currently available for metals, glass, unmixed plastics, and newspaper or paper with a moderate efficiency. The remainder of the municipal solid waster mixture goes to landfills.
A common process used to process municipal solid waste is Thermal Pyrolysis (a member of a set of processes known as Gasification Technologies).
Thermal Pyrolysis is a gasification process where a breakdown of carbonaceous material under controlled amount of air or pure oxygen, and high temperatures up to 1000°C, occurs. This process results in the release of gases. These gases can be used as a source of energy for irrigation, pumping and electricity generation.
Waste plastics can be incinerated with waste treatment technologies. These technologies convert the waste into incinerator bottom ash, flue gases, particulates, and heat, which can in turn be used to generate electric power. The flue gases are cleaned of pollutants before they are dispersed in the atmosphere.
Incineration with energy recovery is one of several waste-to-energy (WtE) technologies which include gasification, plasma arc gasification, pyrolysis and anaerobic digestion.
Organic waste is a major component of municipal solid waste. Most organic waste originates from household waste but commercial, institutional and industrial waste can also contain significant proportions of organic waste.
Biodiesel fuel can be produced from organic waste such as vegetable oils, animal fats, seeds, algae and Jatropha plants. Biodiesel is a fuel made primarily from oily plants (such as the soybean or oil palm) and to a lesser extent from other oily sources (such as waste cooking fat from restaurant deep-frying). Biodiesel, which has found greatest acceptance in Europe, is used in diesel engines and usually blended with petroleum diesel fuel in various percentages (renewable energy).