The Process of Waste to Energy Conversion Assignment 2022

Energy from Waste 1
THE PROCESS OF WASTE TO ENERGY CONVERSION
A Paper on Energy By
Student’s Name
Name of the Professor
Institutional Affiliation
City/State
Year/Month/Day

Energy from Waste 2
INTRODUCTION
Waste to energy is the process of producing energy and electricity from waste treatment or
processing waste into fuel. This can be done through many processes such as gasification,
pyrolysis and incineration. This paper described the process of recovering energy from waste in
two companies known as Covanta and Lee County facility. Negative consequences and different
concepts employed to manage waste are covered.
PROCESS OF WASTE TO ENERGY
The trucks that are used to deliver waters are measured and monitored for safety. The trucks with
the wastes thereafter enter the tipping enclosed area where unloading of wastes occurs into the
concrete storage pit. At this point, the land crane is used to mix the delivered wastes and the
large materials that cannot get burned are removed and disposed to the landfill. The crane carries
the remaining wastes to the hoppers furnace that is positioned in the secluded place and air from
the tipping area and tip are applied for burning wastes and this prevents the odor and dust from
escaping from the building (Demirbas 1280-1287).
The temperature of not less than one thousand eight hundred degrees is required to assure whole
combustion and lower the chances of discharging the unburned toxins. Hot gases move from the
grate area via many sections of the boiler tube where absorption of heat occurs to generate steam.
Bottom ashes are disposed to the landfill or used in road construction and metals are recovered
for recycling. Steam from the boiler is used to power the generator of the turbine and to generate
electricity to run the equipment of the plant. The remaining electricity is sold electricity company
such as Seminole to be used in business and homes (Qin, Loong and Sabev 866-874).

Energy from Waste 3
Covanta Company converts wastes into power for many homes and recycles around seven
hundred thousand tonnes of metals that can be used for construction and manufacture of
beverage cans. According to the environmental protection act of the US, processing energy from
one tone of solid wastes reduces the emission of greenhouse gases by one tone. This is because
of methane avoidance from landfill, offset of pollutants and greenhouse gases from burning
fossil fuel for electricity production. The company also recover metal for recycling (Cucchiella,
D’Adamo and Gastaldi 18-31).
The wastes hierarchy in Covanta Company is built upon the concepts of reducing, recycle,
recover and reuse. The concepts help in the reduction of solid waste impacts on environmental,
save energy and reduce greenhouse gas. The energy waste facility is the only way of disposing of
solid wastes, unlike incinerators and landfills that have uncontrolled air pollution. The facilities
used advanced equipment of air pollution and systems of monitoring emissions that comply with
the recommended standards.
CONCEPTS USED BY BOTH COVANTA COMPANY AND LEE COUNTY FACILITY
TO MANAGE WASTE
Reduce: Through the recovery process done in the facility in the process of recovering energy
from wastes, more than 3000 pounds of mercury have been recovered by these facilities and this
information have been shared with the institute of product stewardship to advocate for the
removal of mercury from the products of consumers.
Reuse: the process of converting waste to energy produces ash as the byproduct of combustion.
This bottom ash has been used for road construction. Also, material that is selected from the
waste can be reused to reduce their accumulation in the environment more than the environment

Energy from Waste 4
can assimilate. Wastewater is also treated using flocculation, oil-water separation and filtration
then treated water is sent back to be reintroduced into the system (Luisa and Sebastião 1359-
1370)
Recycle: these facilities support the green initiatives whereby they provide schools with kind of
training they require to create the conservation culture including waste recycling within their
communities. Some metals in the waste can be recycled by being used as raw materials to
produce other new materials
Recover: the programs of the safety of Covanta Company has destroyed more than five million
pounds of unwanted medication while producing electricity and stream. Waste to energy is a
cyclic process and it ensures that nothing goes to waste, more than half are recovered. This
process generates renewable and clean electricity and steam for industrial, residential and
commercial (Sternlicht 361-375).
NEGATIVE EFFECTS OF WASTE TO ENERGY
Despite being attractive technology, in the absence of good control, pollutants such as dioxins,
heavy metals, and furans can be emitted into the water, land, and air which in turn affect the
human and environmental health. Sometime the technology may require additional fuel which
makes it uneconomical and also more money is set aside for the control systems for reducing
toxic emissions (Hayajawam, Wakazono and Kato 310-315).

Energy from Waste 5
CONCLUSION
In the world where the form of energy is moving to extinction contributing to world concern
such as global warming and the greenhouse effect, the need to innovate environmentally friendly
sources has become important. Waste produced and dumped in the landfill can cause huge
effects on animals, human and ecosystem health. Many plants for treating waste have managed
to generate energy from waste.

Energy from Waste 6
REFERENCES
Cucchiella, Federica, Idiano D’Adamo and Massimo Gastaldi. "Sustainable waste management: Waste to
energy plant as an alternative to landfill." Energy Conversion and Management,2017: 18-31.
Demirbas, Ayhan. "Waste management, waste resource facilities and waste conversion processes."
Energy Conversion and Management,2011: 1280-1287.
Hayajawam, N, et al. "Minimizing energy consumption in industries by cascade use of waste energy."
IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, 2014: 310-315
Luisa, Maria and Marcos Sebastião. "Energy-ecologic efficiency of waste-to-energy plants." Energy
Conversion and Management,2019: 1359-1370.
Qin, Wendy Pei, et al. "Waste-to-Energy (WTE) network synthesis for Municipal Solid Waste (MSW)."
Energy Conversion and Management,2014: 866-874.
Sternlicht, Beno. "Waste energy recovery: An excellent investment opportunity." Energy Conversion and
Management,2015: 361-373.