Recovery of Energy and Materials: Conservation of Environmental Quality, Fossil Fuels and Land

Transcription

1 SUSTAINABLE MANAGEMENT OF MUNICIPAL SOLID WASTES PRESENTATION AT COPPE, RIO DE JANEIRO March 6, 2006 Recovery of Energy and Materials: Conservation of Environmental Quality, Fossil Fuels and Land Nickolas J. Themelis, Earth Engineering Center, Columbia University Waste-to-Energy Research & Technology Council

2 Definition of Sustainable Development (U.N. Brundtland Commission) : Meeting the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs.

3 A bit of background on the speaker: Trained as a chemical engineer. Most of career in the high temperature extraction and refining of copper and other metals. Developer of the Noranda Smelting Process that is used in several countries and has resulted in the capture of millions of tons of sulfur. How I did I get into Garbage Research in 1996? From teaching Industrial Ecology.

4 Industrial Ecology: How to change (re-design) industrial activities,, with full knowledge of their environmental impacts

5 PRINCIPAL ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS: Human health Ecosystems quality Depletion of resources

6 Industrial activities include both industry and users of industrial products/services INDUSTRY IS ALL OF US

7 Estimated global emissions of metals by humanity (tons/year, after Nriagu & Pacyna,, 1998) As Cd Cr Cu Hg Ni Pb Zn To atmosphere: % Contribution of global metal industry: 75% 80% 50% 75% 1% 35% 10% 80% To aquatic systems: % Contribution of global metal industry: 10% 10% 20% 10% 2% 20% 5% 10% the rest of emissions are due to use by society

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9 Columbia University, 1997: Earth and Environmental Engineering : A new discipline for the study of materials and the environment (Brazil( Brazil may be interested)

10 Municipal Solid Wastes (MSW; in Brazil:RSU) Residential Commercial Institutional Wood/garbage from construction and demolition (C&D) White goods (appliances, etc.) Tires Some agricultural wastes

11 Recycling of used materials is of the first priority in waste management but. in many cases, recycling of used materials is more costly than use of virgin materials. Therefore, the incentive to recycle, or other means of waste management, is environmental, not economic. Recycling is recovery of materials. Waste-toenergy (WTE) is recovery of energy. Landfilling is the competitor of Recycling and WTE.

12 Example of difficulties of recycling: It takes 30,000 spent fluorescent tubes to produce one kilogram of MERCURY (market value:$3/kg) At $0.25/tube it costs $7,500 to collect 30,000 tubes (=1 kg of mercury)

13 Another example: A metal recycling company in New York PAYS ( tipping fee ) $50 to landfill one one ton of mixture of plastics and glass residue (Automobile Shredder Residue: ASR) generated by shredding automobile scrap. The landfilled material contains the heating value of 0.4 tons of oil, now worth $190. but you need a very expensive burner!

14 WHY LANDFILLING OF COMBUSTIBLE OR COMPOSTABLE WASTES IS NOT SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT: Such materials biodegrade slowly and release methane gas, mercury vapor, contaminated water, long after the landfill is closed. Approximately one hectare of land is used up for landfilling 200,000 tons of MSW.

15 Uncontrolled landfilling is the worst: DESTROYING LOVELY SEASHORES

16 Uncontrolled and sanitary landfilling create new mountains

17 Sanitary landfills are much better because they control liquid emissions and 50-60% of gas emissions Los Puentes Landfill, LA, CA

18 Gas emissions from landfilling 1 million tonnes of U.S. RSU (sanitary landfill: only 40-50% of these numbers) Compound Concentration, ppmv Tonnes Tonnes C equiv. Methane , ,429 CO , ,250 Ammonia Mercaptans/sulfides Toluene Dichloromethane Acetone Vinyl acetate Tetrachloroethylene Vinyl chloride Dichloroethane Xylenes Trichloroethylene Styrenes

19 Mitsos, 2004 Fires in uncontrolled landfills are the biggest source of dioxins

20 Not much can be built on landfilled land because of continuing bioreactions N. Mitsos, 2004

21 How much land is used in Rio for landfilling? Gramacho land surface : 1.4 million m2, or 140 hectares (about the same as Lake Lagoa (Rio). Total RSU landfilled in Gramacho Landfill (WB) since 1975: 29 million tonnes. When Gramacho fills up, a sanitary landfill of the same size, and at rate of 8,000 t RSU/day, would fill up in less than ten years. However, today, people do not accept living closer than one kilometer from a new landfill because gas emissions and odors travel with surface wind flow. Therefore, the total uninhabited land required for a new landfill should be equal to the area of about 6 times that of Lake Lagoa.,

22 Estimates of methane emissions from landfills in the U.S. and the U.K. (in million tonnes/year) U.S. 2000, EPA) U.K. (1996, NAEI) Brazil estimate Estimated methane emissions Corresponding million tons of carbon equivalent

23 The only alternative to landfilling: Waste-to-Energy RSU Feed Hot gases Ash

24 Schematic diagram of the SEMASS RDF-type WTE Pre-shredded MSW

25 One obstacle to WTE:Public Perception: WTE facilities emit a lot of mercury and dioxins Reality: They did in the past but not any more. Total dioxin emissions from all U.S. WTEs have been estimated by EPA to be <12 grams TEQ (toxic equivalent) of dioxins. Back in 1985, they emitted about 10,000 grams TEQ. Major source of dioxins now: Backyard barrel burning (580 grams TEQ)

26 Gas cleaning is a big part of a modern WTE facility Emission control equipment: Dry scrubber, ammonia injection, activated carbon injection, fabric filter baghouse, continuous monitoring

27 tons/year Reduction of mercury emissions from U.S. WTEs 90 NREL, 1989 EPA, 1995 Themelis & Gregory, 2001 EWG, 2000 < WTE plants >< Coal-fired plants

28 Reduction of dioxin emissions of the U.S. WTE Industry following implementation of Maximum Achievable Control Technology (MACT) (EEC graph from USEPA data)

29 How the U.S. WTE industry stopped being the center of attraction (from USEPA data)

30 Reduction of dioxin emissions in all sectors 1987 to 2002 (Source: USEPA) Not included: Flaring of landfill gas (35% of total collected): Subject of WTERT study.

31 GAS EMISSIONS IN U.S. FROM WTE COMBUSTION OF 1 MILLION TONNES RSU CO 2 Compound Gas conc n, ppmv 289,000 t C Mercury 6 ug/nm3 30 kg Dioxins/Furans 0.05 ng TEQ/Nm3 0.5 grams Net Electricity Produced: 600,000,000 kwh

32 Global Waste-to-Energy Number of nations using WTE: 35 Total population served: 2.6 billion Estimated global WTE: 130 mill t/y U.S. WTE: 26 mill t/y (about 20% of global WTE)

33 Over 164 new WTE facilities since 1995 Major trends in new WTE construction, Martin Plants Von Roll Reverse Grate Horizontal grate Plants Number of new plants, Installed total new capacity, , tons/year 7,800,000 3,100,000 3,500,000 New plants, since 2001 (plus under construction) Total new capacity since 2001, t/y 4,100, ,000 1,150,000

34 U.S. EPA Assessment of Waste-to-Energy, Letter of Feb.14, 2005, to IWSA: clean, reliable, renewable power These plants produce 2800 megawatts of electricity with less environmental impact than almost any other source of electricity.

35 U.S. Department of Energy supports WTE U.S. DOE: Renewable Energy Installed Capacity: 11 GW Forest Products: 7.5 GW, MSW: 3 GW, LF Gas: 0.5 GW Biomass From DOE web page

36 DOE: Bioenergy Electricity Generation: All Biomass WTE WTERT, 2004

37 REASONS WHY WTE IS CONSIDERED TO BE A RENEWABLE SOURCE OF ENERGY RSU IS A FUEL THAT IN WTE PRODUCES 650 kwh PER TONNE RSU IT CONSERVES FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS ABOUT 1 BARREL OF OIL PER TONNE RSU COMBUSTED IT AVOIDS THE EMISSION OF ABOUT TONNES METHANE (0.62 TONNES OF CARBON EQUIVALENT

38 WTERT was founded in 2002 to conduct R&D on various aspects of energy and materials recovery from solid wastes and disseminate the findings of its research in appropriate forums. WTERT is acting as the research arm of the U.S. WTE industry. WTERT assists in the formation of sister Integrated Waste Management sections in other nations.

39 Countries represented at the 2004 WTERT Annual Meeting at Columbia University in the City of New York (October7-8) Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Israel, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Singapore, Ukraine, U.S.A.

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41 the WTERT 2004 Industry and Education Awards

42 WTERT is inviting nominations for 2006 Awards 2006 Industry Award: To environmentally best WTE plant in the world Education Award: To person who has advanced Integrated Waste Management in a nation or the world.

43 Some of the things WTERT has been doing to advance WTE in the U.S. and other countries Fourteen MS and doctoral theses on various aspects of WTE, composting anaerobic digestion, recycling and landfilling

44 The future has already happened for example in the U.S.. (Kaufman, Goldstein, Millrath, and Themelis, BioCycle, Jan )

45 .MSW tonnages continue to increase! Municipal solid wastes collected in the U.S. 500 Millions of tons EEC/-BioCycle, 2002 "Biocycle", Dec EPA/Franklin YEAR

46 2002 SURVEY: HOW MSW IS DISPOSED IN U.S.:

47 The U.S. Waste-to-Energy industry 89 WTE plants 26 million metric tons of MSW/year Net generation of 2.7 Gigawatts Potential for an additional 15 Gigawatts (equivalent to 15 billion gallons/year; or avoiding mining 100 million tons of coal and 600 million tons of coal wastes)

48 Materials collected Total recycled Waste management in Japan: A top federal priority:1999 Million tonnes 10.3 % of collected 19.1% Tonnes per capita 0.08 Total combusted % 0.31 Total composted % 0.00 Direct to landfill % 0.03 TOTAL COLLECTED: % 0.42 Ash and recycling residues to landfill % TOTAL LANDFILLED: % 0.09

49 Province of Brescia Municipality of Brescia A shining example: The Brescia (Italy, 1998) WTE

50 WTE SITE BEFORE CONSTRUCTION

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52 Co-generation Power plant Industrial ecology at Brescia, Italy City of Brescia Waste-to-Energy Plant (1998) District Heating plant

53 A future must for WTEs: Co-generation of electricity and district heating or cooling Pipeline Building substation (30 flats)

54 NEW MAS BURN WTE PLANTS IN THE WORLD, Major trends in new WTE construction, Number of new plants, Reverse Grate Martin Plants Horizontal grate Von Roll Plants Installed total new capacity, , tons/year 7,800,000 3,100,000 3,500,000 New plants, since 2001 (plus under construction) Total new capacity since 2001, t/y 4,100, ,000 1,150, NEW PLANTS SINCE 1996

55 The modern WTE facilities are the pride of their cities HIROSHIMA WTE

56 HIROSHIMA WTE N.Mitsos, 2005

57 HIROSHIMA WTE N.Mitsos, 2005

58 HIROSHIMA WTE N.Mitsos, 2005

59 The island of Singapore

60 6,900 t/d The Solid Waste Challenge in Singapore Waste Explosion 1,200 t/d

61 WTE Facilities in Singapore (95% OF THE RSU) By water! Rio should examine the use of Marine Transfer Stations for transporting RSU to new WTEs. Decongesting traffic and cutting down emissions.

62 CONCLUSIONS (1) WTE IS SUSTAINABLE BECAUSE IT CONSERVES LAND AND FOSSIL FUELS. WTE IS MUCH LESS POLLUTING THAN LANDFILLING. THE RATIONAL PRICE OF SANITARY LANDFILLING IN NON-OECD NATIONS IS ABOUT $30-40/TONNE RSU. SUCH A FEE, PLUS THE VALUE OF THE ELECTRICITY PRODUCED MAKES WTE Α GOOD BUSINESS FOR RIO.

63 CONCLUSIONS (2) GOOD OPPORTUNITY FOR THE FIRST COMPANY INVESTING IN A WTE FOR RIO: LEADERSHIP POSITION FOR A NEW BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY IN BRAZIL AND SOUTH AMERICA. THE FUTURE HAS ALREADY HAPPENED: JUST LOOK AT E.U., JAPAN, SINGAPORE, BERMUDA, CHINA.

64 With thanks to Dr. Sergio Guerreiro for invitation to Brazil and to Petrobras,, COPPE, and other organizers of this seminar N.J.T.

65 Effect of constituents and moisture on heat value of MSW (Themelis, Kim, Brady 2002)