Plasma Arc Driven Solid Waste Management: Energy Generation and Green House Gases (GHGs) Mitigation

Abstract

In today’s context implementation of proper waste management system for safe and eco-friendly disposal of solid wastes is the mostburning issue since the amount of solid wastes more pronouncedly the Municipal solid wastes (MSW) are generating in an uncontrollable volume with the passing days. The generation of MSW largely depends on urbanization, industrialization, economic growth and most importantly the population. These parameters with rapid enhancement are dragging the quantity of MSW at the zenith among other solid wastes. Apart from its huge quantity, improper waste management primarily causes harmful effect on the environment and human health. Recently, Landfilling, incineration are the most common waste disposal methods which are used very frequently rather than other processes like RDF, pyrolysis, gasification. Some of these common methods are good for waste volume reduction but all of them are responsible for generating a huge amount of toxin during the disposal process. The emitted toxins are mainly comprised of CO, CH4, CO2, SOx, NOx like green house gases (GHGs). In search of a safe, eco-friendly technology, it was found Plasma; the fourth state of matter can be used for disposal of MSW. Plasma can be generated in a very controlled way and it readily produces very high temperature (3000–6000°C). Waste materials disintegrate at that high temperature and emit toxin free gases with high content of syngas (CO, H2). The syngas generated from the MSW have very high calorific value, as plastic is the main combustible component in MSW. The syngas can be utilised in gas engine for electricity generation and also for production of bio fuelslike methanol. Methanol like bio-fuels is the next generation fuel which produces very less amount of GHGs at the emission point. The utilisation of efficient low cost bio-fuels could replace the regular fuels in near future. This waste to energy recovery process and bio-fuel production could be a next generation solution to meet the today’s demand of energy resources. These approaches could minimize the demand of conventional fuels and leads to a direct or indirect way of green house gas mitigation. Thus, proper design and development of Plasma driven waste management system could be an ultimate solution to meet the energy crisis and waste to wealth generation.