Triveni Turbines: The Utility of Waste to Energy

Globally there is an increased focus on renewable energy sources, replacing the existing coal-fired power plants with clean fuel power plants that can help reduce the carbon footprint.

Renewables Energy Industry comprises of non-thermal (such as Hydro, Solar Photovoltaic (PV) and Wind) and thermal energy sources (such as Bio-Power, Waste to Energy (WtE), Waste Heat, Concentrated Solar Thermal Power and Geothermal Power) Waste-to-energy (WtE) refers to a variety of treatment technologies that convert waste to electricity, heat, fuel or other usable materials, as well as a range of residues. There are several primary waste streams in urban areas. Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) is one of the primary waste streams that are disposed of in municipal landfills followed by Commercial and Industrial Waste (CIW).

Thermal WtE utilizes energy value in waste to generate electricity and/or heat. In Europe alone, WtE could prevent the production of up to 50 million tons of CO2 emissions that would otherwise be generated by burning fossil fuels, published by MDPI, an international open access journal, in an article on sustainability.

Thermal treatment of waste is an environmentally acceptable alternative method. Thermal WtE, also known as incineration with energy recovery, is a major waste treatment method in some developed countries and by far the most widely adopted technology that dominates the global WtE market.

The Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF) based power production involves separating, sorting, drying and compressing the combustible portion of the waste, resulting in a product which can be used as a feedstock for any of the thermal processes, or combusted in an industrial application. Triveni Turbines installed its 1st Waste-to-Energy (WtE) steam turbine plant commissioned in Germany.

Given its energy intensive production operations, a German-based globally reputed paper manufactured reached out to Triveni Turbines for a refuse-derived fuel (RDF) based power plant.

Solution

• Delivered 1*15.6 MWe extraction condensing steam turbine generator (STG) unit and auxiliaries
• The STG unit was designed for thermal energy use in paper drying process
• The STG unit was crafted to generate electrical energy to run the paper plant and to secure the energy needs of the neighbouring communities

Benefits

• The excess heat from the paper drying process is fed through a district heating pipeline to heat the outdoor swimming pool run by the municipality

Impact

(Through sourcing raw materials i.e. waste from neighbouring communities)

• 32 million cubic metres – saving of natural gas and primary energy
• 55,000 tons – reduction in CO2 emission per year

Triveni Turbines provides steam turbine solutions that use low pressure steam generated through the extraction turbine for heating application by producing both heat and electric power (CHP). The cost of power generated through this process is 14-15 % lesser compared to the cost of power generated through Independent Power plants (IPPs) where the customer is benefited by generating only electric power.

Investments into Thermal renewable based power projects continue to be strong, with large orders finalized in Europe. For example, in the beginning of the year 2022, the company picked one of the largest orders from the globally reputed waste-to-energy producer based in France, for a 1*29.5 MW turbine, which is 20 kilometers from the Eiffel Tower, Paris.

Triveni Turbines Triveni plays a vital role in supplying steam turbines for the waste-to-energy based Independent Power Plants (IPPs) that work under continuous base load operations and varied grid conditions. The company have installed STGs for MSW based IPPs in India, Europe, Thailand, and South Korea.

Triveni Turbines continues its efforts to keep the planet clean and increase energy production by installing steam turbines. These turbines operate within MSW plants and help their main function of disposing of the municipal solid waste.

www.triveniturbines.com

(Published in GLOBAL RECYCLING Magazine 2/2022, Advetorial, Page 12, Photo: Triveni Turbines)