Demonstration and Validation of a Waste-to-Energy Conversion System for Fixed DoD Installations
EW-200932
Objective
The Department of Defense (DoD) is the nation's single largest energy consumer, with about $3.3 billion of fuel used to heat and provide power to buildings. Although DoD has made great progress in reducing its energy consumption for buildings, the overall expenditures on energy continue to increase because of increased commodity costs. The use of municipal solid waste provides a way not only to reduce environmental hazards and waste sent to landfills but also to create energy that can be used in a power grid. Fixed DoD installations are coming under increasing regulatory pressure to reduce the waste that goes to on-site and off-site landfills. For example, the active landfill at Edwards Air Force Base in California is rapidly reaching full capacity and strict regulatory requirements make expansion prohibitively costly. Landfills also are being targeted as sources of greenhouse gases. The primary objective of this project is to demonstrate and validate a waste-to-energy conversion (WEC) system capable of converting combustible municipal solid waste (refuse-derived fuel) and biomass on fixed DoD installations into electricity and heat.
Technology Description
Infoscitex (IST) has been developing a WEC system for converting encampment waste generated in the field to on-site electricity and heat for use in kitchens to make them energy self-sufficient. The encampment waste consists of food, plastics, paper, and cardboard, similar to components found in municipal solid waste. One of the main and proprietary features of the system is the preprocessing of the solid waste into homogeneous and densified pellets for use in a downdraft gasifier, producing a syngas (producer gas) that provides fuel for electricity and/or heat generation. Gasification is more efficient than incineration in that more of the energy contained in the producer gas is extracted from the solid waste. Incineration with electricity generation recovery produces 500-600 kWehr/ton waste compared to gasification, which produces 750-850 kWehr/ton. Densified fuel pellets are more desirable to use than unconsolidated shredded waste because they facilitate transport and feeding of the waste feedstock and enable more optimal and higher efficiency gasifier operation through control of the height of the gasification zone and air flow in the gasifier. The denser the fuel pellets the more uniformly they will burn in the gasifier. In many energy conversion processes food generally inhibits gasification; whereas, in the IST WEC system food enhances pelletization. The preprocessing system has been designed for minimal parasitic energy loss, requiring less than 5% of the energy in the solid waste feed stock. Waste heat from the gasifier and generator is used to dry the waste. To date the IST WEC system has been operated on solid waste feed manually made from cardboard and meals-ready-to-eat (MRE) and in accordance with Force Provider solid waste recipes. Demonstration at a fixed DoD installation will result in the continuous and automatic operation of the WEC system on a municipal solid waste in a credible environment and provide realistic capital, operating, and maintenance cost data.
Benefits
It is assumed that large and medium fixed DoD installations in the United States can support a WEC system. The total quantity of solid waste generated by military and civilian base employees at these bases has been estimated to be about 3,000 tons per day. The total amount of electricity that can be generated from this waste with distributed WEC systems is about 90 MWe, which results in a net waste reduction to landfills of 3,300 tons per day and a total savings ranging from $190 to $475 million per year depending on the costs of energy and waste disposal. Conventional incineration of this waste results in electricity generation of about 60 MWe. (Anticipated Project Completion - 2011)
Points of Contact
Principal Investigator
Mr. Michael Cushman
Infoscitex Corporation
Phone: 781-890-1338 x225
Fax: 781-890-1330
Document Types
- Fact Sheet - Brief project summary with links to related documents and points of contact.
- Final Report - Comprehensive report for every completed SERDP and ESTCP project that contains all technical results.
- Cost & Performance Report - Overview of ESTCP demonstration activities, results, and conclusions, standardized to facilitate implementation decisions.
- Technical Report - Additional interim reports, laboratory reports, demonstration reports, and technology survey reports.
- Guidance - Instructional information on technical topics such as protocols and user’s guides.
- Workshop Report - Summary of workshop discussion and findings.
- Multimedia - On demand videos, animations, and webcasts highlighting featured initiatives or technologies.
- Model/Software - Computer programs and applications available for download.
- Database - Digitally organized collection of data available to search and access.