Techno-economic Evaluation of Biofuel Production from Organic Fraction of Municipal Solid Waste (OFMSW) Generated in Abu Dhabi

Abstract

Almost 10 million ton of waste is produced in Abu Dhabi annually and it is increasing yearly, as a result of the increasing industrialization and population growth in the UAE. In arid countries such as the United Arab Emirates where composting is difficult, the organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW) constitutes a major waste problem. The objective of this study was to develop an optimal process through pre-treatment and enzymatic hydrolysis to enable efficient fermentation of the organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW) for the production of biofuel. Synthetically prepared OFMSW (≈ 22% glucan/g TS) was subjected to heat pretreatment and enzymatic hydrolysis. Up to the 90% of the bioavailable C6 sugars was consumed in less than 24 hours of ethanol fermentation with Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The fermented broth contained up to 4.5% wt. concentration of ethanol. Experimental results were used in the proposed SuperPro model to determine the economic feasibility of biofuel production from mOFMSW, while identifying possible areas for economic improvement. Economic analysis of the process showed that the minimum selling price of ethanol and methane as the main products respectively is $1.17/kg EtOH and $0.30/kg CH4. This was calculated based on a pay-back time of 10 years and an interest rate of 5% on the fixed capital investment. An annual profit of $8.9 million was realized based on this economic assumption. This study has demonstrated that mOFMSW in Abu Dhabi can serve as a feedstock for biofuel production after hydrolysis using a low dosage of a tailored enzymes mix (10% of company recommended loading).

Date of Award	Jun 2013
Original language	American English
Supervisor	Mette H. Thomsen (Supervisor)