Energy Recovery

The recovery of energy from waste materials is already a well established technology. As the price of oil and other energy resources rise, waste products have become a valuable resource that can no longer be ignored. Waste can be economically used to produce heat or electricity for industrial and domestic use. Waste is also a green energy source because it not only reduces our reliance on fossil fuels such as coal, oil, or gas, it also reduces the amount of land used for landfills. It only makes sense to capitalize on this abundant energy resource. EnerWaste's BOS system efficiently converts waste heat from the hot flue gases into re-useable energy using existing energy recovery technology.

The energy is initially recovered by passing the hot effluent gasses from the BOS through a boiler to produce steam that can be used for many purposes. There may be opportunities to utilize this steam in a local industrial production process. Many industries, including paper mills, food processors, textile companies, industrial laundries and many others consume large quantities of steam and may be interested in purchasing steam or collaborating in a co-generation project. The steam can also be used to generate large volumes of hot water that can be used for heating.

However, the most promising use for waste produced energy may be in the generation of electricity. High pressure steam can be used to drive a turbine in order to generate electrical power. This is an efficient and well proven technique to produce electricity. The electrical power can then be utilized locally or exported to the electricity grid for distribution. In many countries there are incentives for companies to purchase or generate power from non-fossil fuels. A by-product of this process is low-grade heat which can be utilized or sold to other energy users.

The amount of energy that can be recovered from waste depends upon the type of waste, the moisture content, and the caloric (BTU) value. For example, a BOS plant with 60 tons of MSW per day is capable of producing approximately 1 megawatt of electricity or 4 tons per hour of steam. With industrial and bio-waste, which may be drier and have a higher caloric value, the value of the recovered energy may be significantly higher.