Zahid Hossain Biplob: The state-owned Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) is likely to produce electricity and thermal energy from municipal solid wastes with a view to promote renewable and domestic resources of energy as well as introducing responsible waste management in the country.
Yamato Technologies Pvt Ltd, a Chinese farm has in the meantime expressed their keen interest in setting up of country’s first-ever waste- based power plant project at Keraniganj on the outskirts of the capital.
Power Division sources said, they have sought an opinion from the BPDB on the proposal as the power will be supplied to local 11 KV power substation owned by Bangladesh Rural Electrification Board (BREB).
“Now, we are trying to take the opinion of BREB because the power substation will run on their area”, said a Power Division official.
Mohammad Hossain, director general of the Power Cell told the Daily Industry on Sunday that growing urbanisation and changes in the pattern of life are significantly producing wastes which became another threat on the degraded environment.
However, in recent years, waste-to-energy technologies have been developed to produce clean energy through the combustion of municipal solid waste in especially designed power plants equipped with the most modern pollution control equipment to clean emissions.
With the help of this project city’s municipal solid waste by 2,000 tons a day to generate electricity and it is an environment-friendly solution to address the municipality’s waste issue and meet energy needs, according to official sources.
Successful implementation of the project will solve waste disposal problems and challenges of limited space for landfills and gas emissions resulting in cleaner cities and healthy life, said Mahbubur Rahman, chief engineer of the BPDB.
Waste-to-energy initiatives have become popular throughout the world. Today, the whole world is emphasising on waste management for producing energy, he said.
Byproducts of waste, such as methane gas, are also captured and used as a clean energy source. As the worldwide demand for energy is growing, and for this, the waste-to-energy projects are getting importance to the authorities concerned, he observed.
Waste provide an alternative to fossil fuels and have a variety of economic and environmental benefits, Rahman added.
Sheik Nazmul Haq, director (Renewable Energy) of the BPDB said that the main objective of the project is to ensure the development of waste management as well as electricity generation.
Solid waste has good potential to contribute in the generation of renewable power, especially in major cities and municipalities,” he said adding everyday around 200 tones of garment waste are generated.
Municipal solid waste has good potential to contribute for the generation of renewable energy, especially in major cities and municipalities areas, where ample of waste is generated, he mentioned.
Bangladesh generated some 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.