Technical-economical analysis of anaerobic digestion process to produce clean energy

Anaerobic digestion is an effective way to not only digest waste efficiently but also good amount of remunerable energy can be recovered without any significant carbon emission. In many countries landfill or incineration are still the main techniques for disposing waste in which their environmental viabilities remains in question. Anaerobic digestion (AD) process can provide a significant solution to a growing issue of organic garbage and simultaneously can fulfill the additional energy requirement. The main objective of this paper is to study the feasibility of anaerobic digestion plant for mixture of various types of wastages. The feedstock or organic waste for the analysis has been considered wastes from university/hotel, wastes of slaughterhouse and manure from poultry farm. This study offers a critical and comprehensive analysis of technical aspects of anaerobic digestion for different varieties of solid waste to produce electricity and heat. The prospective annual methane yield has been found 1,090,800 m(3) from 40000 tonnes wastes. The estimated amount of heat is 19536 MJ/year along with electricity can be produced around 4824 MWh/year through combined heat and power (CHP). Beside producing clean energy from waste, the economic analysis and payback period (5.4 year) also indicates that the project can be a viable alternative to achieve UN's Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) of affordable and green energy by 2030. (C) 2020 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Automated summary

Anaerobic digestion is an effective way to process waste and recover energy without significant carbon emissions. This study explores the feasibility of anaerobic digestion for various types of waste, aiming to produce electricity and heat as a viable alternative to achieve UN's Sustainable Development Goal of affordable and green energy by 2030. The potential annual methane yield and estimated amount of heat and electricity production through anaerobic digestion indicate its economic viability and environmental benefits.