Biogas Power Plant

__________________________________________
Nida Ali Student Of BE (final year) Department of Industrial And Manufacturing, NED UET Karachi, Pakistan.

Summary:
The pace of economic and social progress in the developing world has increased significantly over the past several years. An important part in the economic and social rise of a country is played by affordable production of electricity. This study is carried out to determine the economical feasibility of a Biogas Power Plant that employs waste. For this purpose RETScreen4 has been used. The 4MW power station is part of an integrated plant consisting of biogas digester, cleaning & drying unit and CHP (Combined Heat and Power Systems). The analysis shows that at 75% availability of waste, 4MW power plant can produce 26,280MWh of electricity.

Introduction:
Developing countries are in critical energy crisis. The renewable and sustainable energy resources are best substitute to the conventional fuels and energy sources. Renewable energy sources can act as reliable shield against rising price of fossil fuel and also they are not harmful to environment. Among all renewable resources biomass energy, i.e. biogas, is unique as its availability is de-centralized. Almost all village households have animals and agro wastes to produce bioenergy. Fuel obtained from biomass that has already served as food cycle is even more valuable since it solves the waste disposal problem.

Potential for biogas:

Being an agro-livestock based economy; Pakistan has huge resources of biomass that are available in the form of crop residues, dung and feces, poultry litter, sugarcane bagasse and wood. Electricity generation using biomass is one of the most convenient options. Pakistan is worlds 5th largest sugarcane producer with an average annual production of 50 million tons cane and 10 million tons

of bagasse. According to an estimate there are about 80 sugar mills having potential to generate almost 3000 MW energy through biogas generation. Livestock sector is growing at the rate of 4% annually. There are almost 159 million animals and their manure can be used for generation of biogas in rural areas. Urban areas of Pakistan generate over 55000 tones of solid wastes daily. With a share of 22%, 68%, 3.5% and 6.5% of Sindh, Punjab, Baluchistan and NWFP Provinces respectively. On the average the daily dung dropping of medium size of animal is estimated 15kg per day. This would yield 238.5 million kg dung/day. (238.5Million kg/day)/1000 = 238500ton dung/day. since, 40 ton/day produces 25m3 biogas Therefore, 238500 ton dung produces 238500 x (25/40) = 149062.5 m3 biogas. And thus 149062.5 m3 of biogas can be produced. Energy conversion: 1 ton of manure = 0.0055kW electricity 0.0055kW electricity = 48kWh electricity/year.. 238500 ton of dung produces 238500*48= 11.448MWh However, realistically, anaerobic digestion systems only operate 90% of the time (due to maintenance, etc). Therefore, 159 million animals can produce 11.448MWh x 0.9 = 10.3032MWh electricity/year

Analysis By Using RET Screen:

The RET Screen Clean Energy Project Analysis Software is a unique decision support tool developed with the contribution of numerous experts from government, industry, and academia. The software can be used worldwide to evaluate the energy production and savings, costs, emission reductions, financial viability and risk for various types of Renewable-energy and Energy-efficient Technologies (RETs). The feasibility analysis of 4MW Biogas Power Plant is done using this software. The proposed power plant electricity export rate to grid was taken as $103/MWh with the fuel rate of $0.120$/m3. Following table shows the input required in RETScreen.

Capital Cost Project life Inflation rate Debt ratio Debt interest rate Debt term Year Technology availability

$10,000,000 20yrs 8% 70% 15.1% 8 75%

T&D losses Electricity export rate Fuel rate

10% 103.0 $/MWh 3 0.120 $/m

Since, Capital cost is different for every project, in this case we put $10million with the project life of 20years.

Fig1. RETScreen4 Financial Analysis

RETScreen energy model results showed that the biogas power plant generated 26,280 MWh of electricity in a year. Also the Equity payback is found to be 4.3years. Since Cumulative cash flow depends on various inputs for example, fuel rate, electricity export rate, inflation rate etc, so shape of graph will vary with the change in values. The above shape of graph was achieved on above mentioned input values. Values of the outputs demonstrated that the project is financially feasible at above inputs.

Conclusion:
With rapid increase in population and industry, energy needs are on rise. Biogas energy generation systems are in demand as they are cheaper and can be run with very low operating cost. The RETScreen analysis of the biogas power plant showed that the proposed 4 MW power plant costing $10million is economically feasible. The power plant, at a plant availability of 75%, will produce 26,280MWh of electricity each year. From environmental point of view the power plant will avoid production of tons of CO2 each year. If a chain of such integrated biogas plants are installed in Pakistan then not

only electric power need of the local population will be met in a sustainable way but a significant improvement in supply chain of perishable agriculture product will also be achieved at low cost. Presently majority of cold storage facilities in the country employ grid supplied electricity to operate electric compressor based refrigeration systems. Such systems are costly to operate as electricity is no longer cheap in Pakistan. Besides this there is insufficient number of cold warehousing facilities in the country consequently a significant quantity of vegetable and fruit perish before it reaches the consumer. The impact of such integrated plants will be positive on the economy and environment.

References:
[1] Estonian University of Life Sciences (Animal wastes and energy production: manure, biogas, compost) [2] Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 15 (2011) 28332837 (Biogas, renewable energy resource for Pakistan) [3] Renewable Energy From A Harmful Waste And Its Economic, Environmental And Social IMPACT by A Khalid, N Qureshi, MA Syed [4] Pakistan Bureau of Statistics [5] Anaerobic Digestion Initiative Advisory Committee of BC [6] RETScreen International, Clean energy project analysis: RETScreen engineering and cases textbook, Canada: Minister of Natural Resources