Development of an Incinerator for Performance Evaluation of Municipal Solid Waste as an Alternative Energy Source

Abstract

The challenge of municipal solid waste (MSW) management in cities of developing countries, including Abuja, poses a serious threat to environmental sustainability. An effective and economic approach to solving this problem is converting the organic fraction of the collected waste to energy by direct incineration. This requires knowledge of technical parameters of the MSW. Design, construction and performance analysis of an incinerator for treatment of organic waste was carried out in this work applying a methodology of standard mechanical engineering design principles. The aim of this study is to develop an incinerator that can be employed to treat organic fraction of municipal solid wastes (MSW) for the purpose of energy recovery, using Abuja’s MSW as a test case. Required combustion parameters of the MSW were thereby obtained. The fixed grate experimental-scale incinerator developed in this work has dimensions of 1000 mm x 800 mm x 800 mm (L x H x W) and a waste treating capacity of 30 kg/hr..Performance tests conducted on the incinerator showed that burn-out time of 30 minutes was achieved in the incineration of organic waste for a test batch size of 6 kg and the average incinerator hearth temperature attained was 618 .The carbon monoxide emission was found to be116.97 g per ton of MSW which is very much lower than internationally allowed value of 125g/ton of MSW. The incinerator’s potential for steam generation for electric power production was determined to be 64.86 kg/sec at 8 bar and 460 , pressure and temperature, respectively.