Renewable Energy Solutions

Renewable sources for energy production will continue to be of great importance for the supply of the energy demand. AECL jointly with Greentech Resources Ltd. is working on renewable energy solutions in Bangladesh.

There are many options available for renewable energy production but AECL has worked on two options so far:

1.Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) Energy
2.Solar Energy

MSW in Bangladesh has two important characteristics:

  • Low heat content 770-1440 kcal/kg (3-6 MJ/kg) about half of that in the developed countries and huge moisture (50-60%).
  • The MSW is also organic in nature (50-60%).
Process Flow Diagram of MSW Management

MSW in Bangladesh may need considerable additional energy to pre-process and keep the boiler temperature high enough to burn the wastes. The reason why is it is not suitable for conventional combined heat & power (CHP) waste to energy technologies like, incineration, plasma, pyrolysis or Gasification due to high moisture & organic content. Based on prevailing conditions with respect to gradual growth of technology and quantity/quality of municipal solid wastes, Bio-digester technology seems to be the most preferred technology for Bangladesh to start with. So, the possible new generation solution is to generate biogas & electricity and compost from the MSW.

AECL jointly with Greentech Resources Ltd. (GRL) has done the analysis & pre-feasibility with Dhaka MSW at the Matuail Landfill Site, Dhaka and proposed solutions for the MSW in Bangladesh.

Proposed solution for the MSW of Bangladesh

It was mentioned earlier that the quality of MSW in Bangladesh is not suitable for conventional waste to energy projects due it’s lower calorific value and presence of huge moisture & organic matter. After careful consideration of the above GESL proposed the project to treat 150 MT/day which will have the following component:

1.Recycle the waste as much as possible.
2.Generate Biogas + Electricity from the biodegradable portion by OREX Extrusion process and bio-methanation.
3.Produce Compost and liquid fertilizer from the substrate of anaerobic.
4.Generate RDF from the non-biodegradable and dry part of the OREX process.
5.Generate additional electricity from the RDF by Gasification based steam turbine power generation system (where possible).