Garbage to Electricity

[ghosthunter]

I wonder why this line is not even considered in the face of the fact of that Metro Manila is running out of places to put their garbage in. The current only garbage solution we have is landfill and that is a finite solution.

To generate electricity in any conventional power station, you just need a heat source to generate high pressure steam to turn some turbines which turns a set of generators. Currently we are using coal and oil.

Why not garbage?

Burning garbage solves two problems. One is cheap fuel to produce fuel. Second, the action of burning waste or garbage reduces the volume to a very small fraction of the original mass.

Although burning garbage does create emissions, those can be scrubbed, filtered and cleaned before it is exhausted to the atmosphere. It is potentially still cleaner than considering that rotting garbage generates methane gas which just escapes to the atmosphere. Methane is a greenhouse gas much worst than carbon dioxide.

Our government must get off their "green" policy which does nothing beyond some demonstration projects and actually implement solutions that can make a difference to the majority of it's citizens.


http://www.gizmag.com/waste2tricity-...tricity/11028/

http://www.global-greenhouse-warming...m-garbage.html

http://www.chamco.net/chamco/garbage_electricity.html

[rion]

uu nga, kailan kaya tayo mag kakaroon ng majority of good people working in the government.

In India they use plastic to mix with the asphalt to make the road last a year or 2 longer.

NEW DELHI, INDIA — In the 1990s, Ahmed Khan’s company in Bangalore, India, churned out hundreds of thousands of plastic bags and other packaging material each month that eventually ended up as garbage. Now, he is in the business of scouring the city’s landfills and trash cans to reclaim some of that waste and pave the way to a more environmentally friendly enterprise.

Mr. Khan, 60, is trying to solve two of the biggest problems in India: battered roads and overflowing landfills. His solution: streets made with recycled plastic.

Mr. Khan’s company, K.K. Plastic Waste Management, which he founded with his brother, Rasool Khan, has built more than 1,200 kilometers, or 745 miles, of roads using 3,500 tons of plastic waste, primarily in Bangalore, India’s technology and outsourcing hub.

Mixing plastic with asphalt, Mr. Khan forms a compound called polymerized bitumen. When used in roads, it withstands monsoons and everyday wear and tear better than traditional pavement.

“Typically, our roads have a life of three to four years under ideal conditions, but the plastic has increased that by at least another year or two,” said Sunil Bose, head of the Flexible Pavement Division at the Indian Central Road Research Institute, a government agency.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/14/bu...14plastic.html

It's a simple innovation, also reduces corruption oppurtunities.

[OldSchoolHack]

I'm guessing you guys have not heard of the QC Payatas Dumpsite power generating plant. It's a methane processing plant which delivers a small amount of power used for the SME around Payatas.

Not only has it been given recognition abroad, it is a model of recycling and recovery both of materials and resources.

FYI.

[ghosthunter]

I'm guessing you guys have not heard of the QC Payatas Dumpsite power generating plant. It's a methane processing plant which delivers a small amount of power used for the SME around Payatas.

Not only has it been given recognition abroad, it is a model of recycling and recovery both of materials and resources.

FYI.

I have heard of it but doesn't deal with the problem of reducing the volume of garbage that Metro Manila generates daily.

Like I said: "Our government must get off their "green" policy which does nothing beyond some demonstration projects and actually implement solutions that can make a difference to the majority of it's citizens."

[badkuk]

me limit ata ung amount of methane/power that can be extracted from Payatas, since, ironically, they've closed it down and prevented the entry of fuel(i.e. garbage). Still, it should serve as a sort of model/proof of concept. Sana me tumuloy.


a few small farms also routinely collect animal poo and extract the methane. Haven't seen anything more large scale than that though. Ewan ko lang if time will come na magiging profitable to transport truckloads of poo as fuel.


i also read this article in a recent Entrepreneur mag about this guy setting up a plant to extract oil from used plastic. Medyo hilaw na pagkagreen since the oil you extracted is still hydrocarbon based, but if it becomes profitable...baka mawala na ung mga plastic wrappers sa garbage dumps natin.

[ghosthunter]

me limit ata ung amount of methane/power that can be extracted from Payatas, since, ironically, they've closed it down and prevented the entry of fuel(i.e. garbage). Still, it should serve as a sort of model/proof of concept. Sana me tumuloy.

Methane is produced when the organic part of garbage is biodegrading. Unfortunately unless you seal the entire garbage dumpsite, more methane will escape into the atmosphere than is recovered as fuel.

a few small farms also routinely collect animal poo and extract the methane. Haven't seen anything more large scale than that though. Ewan ko lang if time will come na magiging profitable to transport truckloads of poo as fuel.

There is two problems with going bigger scale on this.

One is the smell.

Second is safety. Larger scale would mean larger bio-reactors to convert poo into methane. Any small leak of air and it might a combustion and a major explosion.