Waste to electricity
The government is set to produce electricity and thermal energy from municipal solid wastes on a pilot basis with the view to introducing responsible waste management in the country.
The Bangladesh Power Development Board has already floated tender seeking proposals for construction, testing and commissioning of a 1megawatt power plant at Keraniganj upazila, south of Dhaka city.
The final day for submission of tender is March 9.
“This is going to be the first power plant in Bangladesh to produce electricity based on waste,” said Md Nazmul Haque, director of renewable energy research & development of BPDB.
The project's main objective is to ensure waste management as well as energy generation.
“It will be a big achievement if we can keep our cities clean by utilising wastes for energy generation and compost,” he added.
The power plant would be using 55 tonnes of waste, which will be supplied by the local authority of Keraniganj, to produce 450 kilowatts of electricity and generate thermal energy.
The heat will be used to reduce the moisture in the wastes as well as in the plant.
The electricity generated will be supplied to the national grid, according to officials.
The plant's success will be instrumental to establishing more such plants in other local government authorities, particularly in city corporation areas, Haque added.
The government move comes after German International Development Agency (GiZ) carried out a feasibility study at Keraniganj to explore the possibility of using wastes to generate energy.
The idea behind setting up the plant is to see whether electricity generation through waste is commercially and technically viable, said Siddique Zobair, member of Sustainable & Renewable Energy Development Authority.
Municipal solid waste has good potential to contribute for the generation of renewable energy, especially in major cities and municipalities areas, where ample waste is generated.
Bangladesh generated 23,688 tonnes of municipal solid waste per day in its urban areas in 2014, up from 13,330 tonnes per day in 2005 and 6,493 tonnes per day in 1991, according to SREDA.
The total amount of waste generated every day in Bangladesh has been increasing annually since 1991.
SREDA forecasted total waste generation to hit 47,000 tonnes per day by 2025 due to rising urban population.
The generation of electricity from municipal solid waste of six mega cities can be as high as 186,408 kWh/day, said SREDA on its website.
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