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ENVIRONMENTAL AND ECONOMIC IMPACTS OF ENERGY PRODUCTION FROM MUNICIPAL SOLID WASTE
PI: Prof. J. N. Kuhn (jnkuhn@usf.edu; 813 974 6498) &
co-PI: Prof. B. Joseph (bjoseph@usf.edu)
University of South Florida, 4202 E. Fowler Ave ENG030, Tampa FL 33620

Student Researchers: Yetunde "Tosin" Sokefun (PhD), Ahmad Naqi (MS), Daniela Cerna Chinchilla (BS), Matthew Kastelic (BS), and Paul Stachurski (BS)

Sponsor: William W. Hinkley Center for Solid and Hazardous Waste Management at the University of Florida

Research Description: Municipalities today are faced with a variety of options on dealing with solid waste. Tools and guidance are needed to make sound decisions, regards to both environmental and economic factors, that takes into account various site specific constraints such as land and water availability, energy costs and needs, and government policies and tax incentives. The goal of this project is to quantify the benefits of various traditional and proposed Waste-to-Energy (WTE) technologies versus landfilling. The results will aid in identification of an optimal process for maximizing profitability while minimizing environmental impact given various scenarios and constraints. The proposed effort leverages previous and current efforts on the demonstration of syngas production from landfill gas and  design and application of selective FTS  catalysts (production of diesel and jet fuel) funded by the Hinkley Center, the Florida Energy Systems Consortium (FESC), and the Department of Energy (DOE).

Scope of work: The five WTE technologies selected for this comparison are gasification or anaerobic digestion to produce electricity, incineration to produce heat and power, or gasification to produce compressed natural gas or liquid hydrocarbon fuels (i.e., diesel). These five technologies will be compared to landfilling and single-stream recycling to reach a total of 7 scenarios. These processes will be evaluated at the system level, such as done by the PIs for various WTE and biomass conversion schemes already, to quantify the key parameters needed for making a sound decision taking into consideration economics and environmental impact. These parameters include CAP-EX, OP-EX, energy input requirements,  GHG emissions, water input requirements, co-product generation and use/market (if any), solid waste production (if any), and profitability. The process simulations will include a sensitivity analysis, which will include a variable production scale, process lifetime, degrees of tax credits, etc. on the eight parameters identified to compare the conversion technologies.

Pictures:

 

 

 

 

 

Daniela Cerna wins a poster award for this work at a recent AICHE meeting.

Technical Awareness Group (TAG):

Our first TAG meeting was held on 3/6/18. Gotomeeting or Room views.

Our second TAG meeting was held on 10/5/18. LINK

 

John Schert

Director

Hinkley Center

Wester W. Henderson

Research Coordinator III

Hinkley Center

Devin Walker

Process Engineer

BASF

Matt Yung

Researcher

Nat. Renewable Energy Lab

Tim Roberge

Vice President of Corporate Development

T2C-Energy

Richard K Meyers

SWRS Program Manager

Broward County Solid Waste and Recycling Services

Lee Casey

Chief of Environ. Compliance (Retired)

Miami Dade County Dept of Solid Waste

Canan “Janan” Balaban

Asst. Director

Florida Energy Systems Consortium

Ron Beladi

Vice-president

Neel-Schaffer, Inc.

Rebecca Rodriguez

Engineer Manager II

Lee County Solid Waste Division

Linda Monroy

Project Manager Associate

Lee County Solid Waste Division

Sam Levin

President

S2LI

Charles “Peb” Hendrix

Chief Operating Officer

LocatorX

Tony Elwell

Staff Engineer I

HSW Engineering, Inc

Nada Elsayed

Scientist, PD

Catalent Pharma Solutions Inc

Yolanda Daza

Process TD Engineer

Intel Corporation

James Flynt

Chief Engineer 

Orange County Utilities Department 

Gita Iranipour

Engineer Associate

Hillsborough County Public Utilities Department

Luke Mulford

Water Quality Manager

Hillsborough County Public Utilities Department

Ray Oates

Solid Waste Compliance Manager

Citrus County Division of Solid Waste Management

 

 

We thank the members of our TAG for their service and input.

 

Progress Reports:

First Quarter - LINK

Second Quarter- LINK

Third Quarter - LINK

FINAL REPORT - LINK

 

Project supported in funding by William W. Hinkley Center for Solid and Hazardous Waste Management at the University of Florida