{"id":233565,"date":"2023-03-22T20:29:42","date_gmt":"2023-03-22T14:59:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=233565"},"modified":"2023-03-22T20:29:42","modified_gmt":"2023-03-22T14:59:42","slug":"understanding-waste-to-energy-plants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/understanding-waste-to-energy-plants\/","title":{"rendered":"Understanding waste-to-energy plants"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Source<\/span><\/b>: The post is based on the article\u202f<\/span>\u201c<\/span><\/b>Understanding waste-to-energy plants<\/span><\/b>\u201d<\/span> published in <\/span>The Hindu <\/span><\/b>on\u202f<\/span>22<\/span><\/b>nd<\/span><\/b> March 2023<\/span><\/b>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Syllabus: GS 3 \u2013 Environment<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Relevance: <\/span><\/b>problems with Waste to Energy Plants<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

News<\/span><\/b>: <\/span>The Kerala government recently announced the State\u2019s first waste-to-energy project in Kozhikode. The planned facility is expected to be built in two years and generate about 6 MW of power.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What do waste-to-energy projects do?\u00a0<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

These projects use non-recyclable dry waste to generate electricity and in turn increase the State\u2019s power generation capacity and <\/span>ease the solid waste management (SWM) burden.<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

These plants use non-biodegradable waste to generate power.<\/span><\/b> The waste is combusted to generate heat, which is converted into electricity.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Why is it needed in Kozhikode?\u00a0<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

Kozhikode has a population of about 6.3 lakh and generates approximately 300 tones per day (TPD) of waste. Of this, around 205 TPD is biodegradable and 95 TPD is non-biodegradable.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Out of the 95 TPD non-biodegradable waste, only about 5 TPD is recycled. Therefore, the <\/span>remaining non-recyclable dry waste could be used to generate power at the waste-to-energy plant.<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What are the concerns associated with non-biodegradable waste required to generate electricity?<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

Solid wastes usually contain 55-60% biodegradable organic waste which gets converted into organic compost. 25-30% are non-biodegradable dry waste and around 15% are silt, stones, and drain waste.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Out of non-biodegradable wastes, <\/span>only 2-3%, like hard plastics, metals, and e-waste, is recyclable.<\/span><\/b> The remaining consists of low-grade plastic, rags, and cloth that can\u2019t be recycled.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This part of the non-recyclable dry waste is the most challenging portion of the SWM system.<\/span><\/b> The presence of these materials <\/span>also reduces the efficiency of recycling other dry and wet waste.\u00a0<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What are the challenges with Waste to Energy plants?<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

Read Here: <\/span><\/b>Waste to Energy Plants: Benefits and Concerns<\/span><\/b><\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What measures can be adopted to overcome these challenges?<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

First,<\/span><\/b> people need to follow <\/span>strict segregation practices<\/span><\/b> and process biodegradable wastes. <\/span>For example,<\/span><\/b> Kozhikode\u2019s projected population and waste generation rate could use around 100 TPD of non-recyclable dry waste to generate power. But this is only possible when people follow proper segregation.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Second,<\/span><\/b>\u202fthe <\/span>municipality must ensure that only non-biodegradable dry waste is sent to the plan<\/span><\/b>t and separately manage the other kinds of waste.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Third,<\/span><\/b> it is also necessary that <\/span>biodegradable-waste-processing plants should operate efficiently.<\/span><\/b> Else, all the waste would be transferred to Waste to Energy Plants which might affect its power generation capacity.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Fourth,<\/span><\/b> Segregation should be <\/span>streamlined to ensure the waste coming to the facility has 2,800-3,000 kcal\/kg calorific value<\/span><\/b> for proper generation of electricity.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Fifth,<\/span><\/b> the department responsible for SWM should be practical about the high cost of power generation. Hence, <\/span>a tripartite agreement between the municipality, the plant operator, and the power distribution agency might be fruitful.<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source: The post is based on the article\u202f\u201cUnderstanding waste-to-energy plants\u201d published in The Hindu on\u202f22nd March 2023.\u00a0 Syllabus: GS 3 \u2013 Environment\u00a0 Relevance: problems with Waste to Energy Plants\u00a0 News: The Kerala government recently announced the State\u2019s first waste-to-energy project in Kozhikode. The planned facility is expected to be built in two years and generate… Continue reading Understanding waste-to-energy plants<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10320,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[216,10498],"class_list":["post-233565","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-gs-paper-3","tag-the-hindu","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233565","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10320"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=233565"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233565\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=233565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=233565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=233565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}