Resource Mining for a Bioreactor Landfill

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-34 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jay N. Meegoda ◽  
Ameenah Soliman ◽  
Patrick A. Hettiaratchi ◽  
Michael Agbakpe

Background: A new generation of the sustainable landfill is designed to achieve sustainable Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) management. It is hybrid anaerobic/aerobic biodegradation landfill followed by landfill mining. However, there is limited information on landfill mining, especially the criteria and process for the practitioner to determine the end of the landfill biodegradation to commence landfill mining. Objective: Hence the overall objective of this research was to develop a comprehensive resource mining plan for bioreactor landfills. </P><P> Method: When waste decomposition becomes slower or stopped, the landfill can be mined to recover resources and utilize the recovered space. The amount of the gas generated, landfill temperature and landfill settlement are indirect measures of landfill activity. Also, the concentration of cellulose (C), hemicelluloses (H), and lignin (L) can describe the biodegradable fractions of waste. Hence the biodegradation in landfills can be monitored by recording the change in methane production, temperature, settlement and the (C+H)/L ratio of waste. Once methane recovery is minimal, landfill reaches a maximum settlement and, ambient temperature plus the (C+H)/L value reaches a stable value of 0.25 indicating end of biodegradation. At this point landfill resources including compost material, non-recoverable waste, and recyclables such as plastics, metal and glass can be mined and recovered. Compost and recyclables can be sold at market value and the non-recovered waste with high energy content can be used as refuse-derived fuel. Once the landfill has been mined space can be reused thus eliminating the need to allocate valuable land for new landfills. </P><P> Result: The landfill mining detailed in this manuscript utilizes principles from single stream type recycling facilities to ensure feasibility. The first landfill will be excavated and screened to separate the biodegraded soil and compost fraction from the recyclables. Then the screened recyclable materials are transported for further processing in a single stream type separation facility where they will be separated, bundled and sold. Conclusion: A cost calculation was performed for the resource mining of Calgary Biocell and if the mined resources are sold at market values, then the mining of Calgary Biocell would generate approximately $4M.

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (11) ◽  
pp. 3193
Author(s):  
Ana L. Santos ◽  
Maria-João Cebola ◽  
Diogo M. F. Santos

Environmental issues make the quest for better and cleaner energy sources a priority. Worldwide, researchers and companies are continuously working on this matter, taking one of two approaches: either finding new energy sources or improving the efficiency of existing ones. Hydrogen is a well-known energy carrier due to its high energy content, but a somewhat elusive one for being a gas with low molecular weight. This review examines the current electrolysis processes for obtaining hydrogen, with an emphasis on alkaline water electrolysis. This process is far from being new, but research shows that there is still plenty of room for improvement. The efficiency of an electrolyzer mainly relates to the overpotential and resistances in the cell. This work shows that the path to better electrolyzer efficiency is through the optimization of the cell components and operating conditions. Following a brief introduction to the thermodynamics and kinetics of water electrolysis, the most recent developments on several parameters (e.g., electrocatalysts, electrolyte composition, separator, interelectrode distance) are highlighted.


2010 ◽  
Vol 64 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Agnieszka Zawadzka ◽  
Liliana Krzystek ◽  
Stanisław Ledakowicz

AbstractTo carry out autothermal drying processes during the composting of biomass, a horizontal tubular reactor was designed and tested. A biodrying tunnel of the total capacity of 240 dm3 was made of plastic material and insulated with polyurethane foam to prevent heat losses. Municipal solid waste and structural plant material were used as the input substrate. As a result of autothermal drying processes, moisture content decreased by 50 % of the initial moisture content of organic waste of about 800 g kg−1. In the tested cycles, high temperatures of biodried waste mass were achieved (54–56°C). An appropriate quantity of air was supplied to maintain a satisfactory level of temperature and moisture removal in the biodried mass and high energy content in the final product. The heat of combustion of dried waste and its calorific value were determined in a calorimeter. Examinations of pyrolysis and gasification of dried waste confirmed their usefulness as biofuel of satisfactory energy content.


2001 ◽  
Vol 72 (2) ◽  
pp. 335-342 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Schwager-Suter ◽  
C. Stricker ◽  
D. Erdin ◽  
N. Künzi

Abstract Net energy efficiencies were calculated from data of an experimental herd with respect to type of cow, lactation number, stage of lactation and diet. The trial consisted of 71 Holstein-Friesians, 71 Jerseys and 71 Holstein-Jersey F1-crosses in 1st, 2nd and > 2nd lactation. Data were collected during 210 days of lactation, from calving to week 30 and included total dry matter intake, energy content of foods, milk yield, milk solids, body weight, body condition scores and several body measurements. The cows were divided into four feeding groups : high and low energy content of roughage as well as high and low proportion of concentrates. Net energy efficiency was calculated as the ratio of milk energy to total net energy intake after subtracting energy utilized for maintenance and body tissue change. Body tissue change was calculated either via body-weight changes or body condition-score changes. Due to the distribution of the efficiencies being skewed, efficiencies were transformed applying a Box-Cox transformation. Transformed net energy efficiencies were analysed using a repeated measurements design considering the sequential nature of the observations. Mixed models with a compound symmetry structure for the variance components were applied. Final models contained the fixed effects of type, lactation number, feeding group and the covariates week of lactation and its square. Holstein-Jersey crosses were more efficient than purebreds, second lactation cows were least efficient, cows given low energy roughage and a lower proportion of concentrates were more efficient than cows on the other diets. Least efficient were the cows belonging to the high energy roughage and higher proportion of concentrates group. The coefficients of determination of the final models were between 0·357 and 0·492.


Author(s):  
Shyam P. Tekade ◽  
Diwakar Z. Shende ◽  
Kailas L. Wasewar

Abstract Hydrogen is one of the important non-conventional energy sources because of its high energy content and non-polluting nature of combustions. The water splitting reaction is one of the significant methods for hydrogen generation from non-fossil feeds. In the present paper, the hydrogen generation has been experimentally investigated with water splitting reaction using metal aluminum in presence of potassium hydroxide as an activator under flow conditions. The rate of hydrogen generation was reported in the annular micro- reactor of 1 mm annulus using various flow rates of aqueous 0.5 N KOH ranging from 1 ml/min to 10 ml/min. The complete conversion of aluminum was observed at all the flow rates of aqueous KOH. The hydrogen generation rate was observed to depend on the flow rate of liquid reactant flowing through the reactor. At 1 ml/min of 0.5 N KOH, hydrogen generates at an average rate of 3.36 ml/min which increases to 10.70 ml/min at 10 ml/min of aqueous KOH. The Shrinking Core Model was modified for predicting the controlling mechanism. The rate of hydrogen generation was observed to follow different controlling mechanisms on various time intervals at low flow rates of aqueous KOH. It was observed that chemical reaction controls the overall rate of hydrogen generation at higher flow rates of aqueous KOH.


2014 ◽  
Vol 548-549 ◽  
pp. 191-195 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zakiuddin Januri ◽  
Norazah Bt Abdul Rahman ◽  
Siti Shawalliah Idris ◽  
Sharmeela Matali ◽  
Shareena Fairuz Abdul Manaf

This paper reported on the product yield of automotive paint sludge via microwave assisted pyrolysis. By having an optimum weight sample loading and power level at 500g and 1000W respectively, optimum product in terms of liquid yields has been obtained. This desired liquid product comprised hydrocarbon material since it contains oil layer and almost 40% of the product can be recovered from the automotive paint sludge with an optimum microwave parameter. Furthermore, the liquid product has a potential to be used as fuel since it exhibit high energy content at 22.6 MJ/kg.


2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (9) ◽  
pp. 3254 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miguel-Angel Perea-Moreno ◽  
Francisco Manzano-Agugliaro ◽  
Quetzalcoatl Hernandez-Escobedo ◽  
Alberto-Jesus Perea-Moreno

The peanut (Arachys hypogaea) is a plant of the Fabaceae family (legumes), as are chickpeas, lentils, beans, and peas. It is originally from South America and is used mainly for culinary purposes, in confectionery products, or as a nut as well as for the production of biscuits, breads, sweets, cereals, and salads. Also, due to its high percentage of fat, peanuts are used for industrialized products such as oils, flours, inks, creams, lipsticks, etc. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) statistical yearbook in 2016, the production of peanuts was 43,982,066 t, produced in 27,660,802 hectares. Peanuts are grown mainly in Asia, with a global production rate of 65.3%, followed by Africa with 26.2%, the Americas with 8.4%, and Oceania with 0.1%. The peanut industry is one of the main generators of agroindustrial waste (shells). This residual biomass (25–30% of the total weight) has a high energy content that is worth exploring. The main objectives of this study are, firstly, to evaluate the energy parameters of peanut shells as a possible solid biofuel applied as an energy source in residential and industrial heating installations. Secondly, different models are analysed to estimate the higher heating value (HHV) for biomass proposed by different scientists and to determine which most accurately fits the determination of this value for peanut shells. Thirdly, we evaluate the reduction in global CO2 emissions that would result from the use of peanut shells as biofuel. The obtained HHV of peanut shells (18.547 MJ/kg) is higher than other biomass sources evaluated, such as olive stones (17.884 MJ/kg) or almond shells (18.200 MJ/kg), and similar to other sources of biomass used at present for home and industrial heating applications. Different prediction models of the HHV value proposed by scientists for different types of biomass have been analysed and the one that best fits the calculation for the peanut shell has been determined. The CO2 reduction that would result from the use of peanut shells as an energy source has been evaluated in all production countries, obtaining values above 0.5 ‰ of their total emissions.


2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (99) ◽  
pp. 63-68
Author(s):  
O. М. Shchebentovska ◽  
A. K. Kostyniuk

Liver problems of various etiologies in turkeys have been reported in many countries for the last 20 years. Poultry dies having no clinical manifestations of the disease, and at pathological autopsy, diffuse haemorrhages and marked dystrophic changes of the organ are noted. To date, there are several factors that can cause such changes, these are unbalanced amino-acid feed, insufficient calcium, biotin, selenium, the very high energy content of feed; zootechnical factors – limited mobility of birds due to cage density violations, high temperature; genetic factors – the influence of estrogens; infectious factors – E. coli, Clostridium, and viruses of Picornaviridae family. The article describes the histopathological and ultrastructural changes in the turkey liver under the influence of various factors. The material for the research was obtained from a farm where turkeys of the “Hybrid Converter” cross are grown, same age, fed with a standard diet that changed according to the technological map of cultivation. On the 50th day of life, a pathological autopsy of the dead poultry was performed, pieces of liver were selected for histological and ultrastructural examination. The visual assessment revealed significantly enlarged liver, the colour from dark red to light brown, flabby consistency. In some cases, diffuse fatty infiltrations of hepatocytes were histologically revealed, in other cases, focal necrosis with the growth of the connective tissue and the formation of massive perivascular couplings were registered. Large vacuolar fatty degeneration of hepatocytes with subsequent development of fibrosis indicates chronic intoxication, probably caused by slow breakdown of fatty acids in cells due to insufficient oxidative phosphorylation, as well as reduced levels of lipotropic factors: choline, methionine and the vitamins. At the ultrastructural level, a large number of lipid inclusions of various sizes, dystrophic changes in mitochondria were observed, which indicates a decrease in the synthetic activity of cells.


2018 ◽  
Vol 77 (11) ◽  
pp. 2613-2623 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kerstin Schopf ◽  
Johannes Judex ◽  
Bernhard Schmid ◽  
Thomas Kienberger

Abstract A municipal wastewater treatment plant accounts for a large portion of the total energy consumption of a municipality. Besides their high energy demand, the plants also display a significant bioenergy potential. This is due to the utilisation of the energy content of digester gas and sewage sludge if there exist suitable units. To maximise the energy recovery efficiency of wastewater treatment systems (WWTS), it is important to analyse the amount of digester gas and sludge produced in different types of plants. Therefore, the present paper deals with designing a tool to answer the following research questions: Which bioenergy potentials occur in different plant types? Which mass and energy flows are related to the specific potentials? Which utilisation processes for the potentials can lead to a high energy recovery efficiency of WWTS? Preliminary analyses with the designed tool were focused on estimating the level of electric and thermal energy self-sufficiency of different plant configuration scenarios including or excluding digester gas and/or sludge utilisation units. First results based on the level of self-sufficiency and associated energy and disposal costs show that a digester gas and sewage sludge utilisation should be considered when designing future WWTS.


2022 ◽  
Vol 17 (01) ◽  
pp. C01025
Author(s):  
B. Bergmann ◽  
P. Smolyanskiy ◽  
P. Burian ◽  
S. Pospisil

Abstract In the present work, we study the Timepix2 pixels’ high energy response in the so-called adaptive gain mode. Therefore, Timepix2 with a 500 μm thick silicon sensor was irradiated with protons of energies in the range from 400 keV to 2 MeV and α-particles of 5.5 MeV from 241Am. A novel method was developed to determine the energy deposit in single pixels of particle imprints, which are spread out over a set of neighbor pixels (cluster). We show that each pixel is capable of measuring the deposited energy from 4 keV up to ∼3.2 MeV. Reconstructing the full energy content of the clusters, we found relative energy resolutions ( σ E ) better than 2.7% and better than 4% for proton and α-particle data, respectively. In a simple experiment with a 5.5 MeV α-particle source, we demonstrate that energy losses in thin (organic) specimen can be spatially resolved, mapping out sample thickness variations, with a resolution around 1–2 μm, across the sensor area. The inherent spatial resolution of the device was determined to be 350 nm in the best case.


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