Production of Electricity Through Trash

Authors Avatar by aadharshd (student)


Introduction

        Currently, the world is facing a huge demand for electricity and companies are not able to produce enough to meet that demand. That is why we face power cuts. The reason why companies are not able to keep up with the demand is that we are running out of non-renewable sources. Our main source, oil, will run out in the next 50 years. Soon we will have to change to renewable sources. There are many renewable sources that we could depend on but they all have drawbacks. The advantage of using renewable sources is that they do not pollute the environment.

        Converting trash into electricity is a brilliant idea as it solves many problems at once. It helps us reduce pollution, the amount of land taken up by landfills and also the energy shortage. It is one of the simplest ways to recycle trash and lots people can help by giving their trash.

Types of Trash

        Trash is anything that we discard or no longer have any use for. There are many types of trash and they are mainly categorized into these 5 types.

  1. Biodegradable waste: This includes things like kitchen waste, food, vegetable peelings and paper.
  2. Recyclable materials: Paper is also included into this group but other non-biodegradable items such as plastic, glass and metals fall into this.
  3. Inert waste: These are materials that are not necessarily harmful to all species but they are harmful to humans. For example, construction and demolition waste.
  4. Composite waste: This includes items composed of more than one material such as clothing and plastics such as children’s toys.
  5. Household hazardous waste: This includes medicine, paint, batteries, pesticide and e-waste. Household hazardous waste cannot be disposed or recycled so many cities offer other options for disposing these items.

Conventional methods used to produce electricity

Currently, there are three conventional methods of creating energy through trash: Thermochemical, Biochemical and Physico-chemical conversion.

Thermochemical Conversion

        Combustion of waste has been used for many years as a way of reducing waste volume. It is also used to neutralize many of the harmful elements in it. Combustion can only be used to create an energy source when heat recovery is included. Heat recovered from the combustion process can then be used to either power turbines for electricity generation or to provide direct space and water heating.

Join now!

        Thermochemical conversion, characterized by higher temperature, is best suited for low-moisture feedstock and is generally less selective for products. Thermochemical conversion consists of three stages: incineration, pyrolysis and gasification. The incineration is the controlled combustion of waste with the recovery of heat to produce steam which in turn produces power through steam turbines. Pyrolysis and gasification are refined thermal treatment methods as alternatives to incineration. They are the transformation of the waste into product gas which can be stored as an energy carrier for later combustion (i.e. in a boiler or a gas engine).

Biochemical Conversion
        The bio-chemical conversion process, which ...

This is a preview of the whole essay