A bright potential for generating minimum USD35 million worth of refuse-derived fuel (RDF) to cut dependence on fossil fuels goes wasted for, experts said, lack of government policy and planning on managing wastes.
Waste Concern, a research organization on waste, finds RDF as an alternative to coal and says it can be produced through using a certain portion of paper, plastic and textile wastes.
This newfound alternative fuel can be used for fuelling productive units like brick-kilns, power plants and cement factories, Waste Concern's research paper reveals.
Chemical Engineering Department of the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) also supports the study findings. The chemical engineers say the heating value of RDF is "close to coal and it can be used both as alternative and co-firing".
According to the BUET engineering results, heating value of coal is 6,000 kilocalories per kilogram while RDF's is 5,000kpg.
The Waste Concern's study shows 50 per cent of the plastic wastes generated in the country are now reused and the remaining half can be used for RDF production.
Dhaka wastes are approximately 20 per cent of total waste mass in the country which can help save 12 million US dollars by avoiding import of coal, according to the Waste Concern.
It says plastic waste increases at the rate of seven percent and is likely to increase 10 to 12 per cent in future for rapid urbanization and increase in per-capital income. Similarly, paper waste and textile waste are also increasing for industrialization.
Iftekhar Enayetullah, director of the Waste Concern, said from the waste generated in Dhaka city, 10,000 tonnes of RDF could be produced.
"If the total waste of the country is well managed, 350,000 tonnes of coal could be saved from brick-kiln industry alone," he told the FE in an interview recently.
Regarding the use of RDF as co-firing, the director said, 95 per cent of the coal use can be replaced by RDF.
The European Commission has set a standard of using 31 per cent plastic waste, 14 per cent textile waste, 13 per cent paper and cardboard wastes and rest percentage with other wastes to produce RDF.
All the waste materials are compressed, extruded and then turned into pellet for use as fuel.
Professor Ijaz Hossain of the BUET Chemical Engineering Department said there is no doubt about a scope of creating a market of RDF in the country but this kind of alternative fuel should be managed through strict management to save the environment from emission.
He said RDF cannot be burned below 1,000 degrees Celsius to avert hazardous impact on the environment.
The BUET professor suggested creating a better waste-management plan so that the entrepreneurs of producing RDF can only sell the fuel to the industries having at least 1000-degree-celsius burners, which are available in power plants and cement factories.
He also laid importance on creating entrepreneurships to set up the RDF plant managing the wastes.
Waste Concern has listed a number of benefits from the use of RDF, which include income generation through small investment, saving the government's cost of waste transportation and management and job creation
   smunima@yahoo.com
$35m renewable RDF energy from wastes remains untapped
Munima Sultana | Published: April 02, 2015 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2024 06:01:00
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