Distributed Generation by Energy from Waste Technology: A Life Cycle Perspective
- When?
- Thursday 14 February 2013, 13.00hrs to 14.00 hrs
- Where?
- 45A AZ 04
- Open to:
- Alumni, Public, Staff, Students
- Speaker:
- Sara Evangelisti, Chemical Engineering Department, University College London
- Admission price:
- No charge
Anaerobic Digestion (AD) is a promising technology for biogas and organic fertilizer production from the Organic Fraction of Municipal Solid Waste (OFMSW). The UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) has estimated that AD technology has the potential of generating between 3 and 5 TWh by 2020 for energy production.
In order to achieve this capacity, the UK Government and Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP) have set up a £10m loan fund. Moreover, WRAP is working on a definition of the Quality Standard for the digestate from AD plants for use in place of a chemical fertilizer. One focus of research has been on using biogas to produce energy for local community in the distributed generation paradigm. To achieve this, several Combined Heat and Power (CHP) systems are under development, such as Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC), Micro Gas Turbine (MGT), Stirling Engine. This work presents the results of an attributional Life Cycle Assessment with system expansion which investigates the environmental impacts of two different scenarios: a Future scenario comprising micro-generation systems fed by biogas/biomethane from OFMSW for distributed generation and a scenario with the same energy system fed by natural gas from the grid. In the Future scenario, three different micro CHP technologies are considered: SOFC, micro gas turbine and Stirling Engine. These systems produce electricity and heat as main products with organic fertilizer as byproduct; at the same time they represent options for waste management. The LCA uses system expansion to deal with these multiple functions. At the same time alternatives for waste treatment are considered: landfill with electricity production and incineration with heat and power production. The case study is in UK, based on an appropriate mix of average and site specific data.