Production of MHD power from municipal waste & algal biodiesel

Accumulation of municipal waste in Dhaka city has given rise to waste management problems. A large component of this waste is organic which produces biomethane by anaerobic digestion. Also load-shedding is a daily misery in Dhaka. But the good thing is that biomethane can be used as fuel for producing electricity. If properly utilized this bio-fuel can reduce both waste management and power management problems. In this paper we aim at establishing a renewable energy power plant that uses biomethane as its primary fuel source. The generator used for producing electricity works on the principle of magneto hydrodynamics (MHD). But the combustion of biomethane emits harmful CO₂. To reduce emissions substantially, an algae pond is proposed where the exhaust carbon dioxide is sequestered by the algae. But algae has other attributes- it is potential producer of biodiesel and biomethane; so it secondary renewable energy source for our power plant. Input to our MHD generator is thus the thermal energy obtained from combustion of biomethane& biodiesel. The installation cost of our unique power plant is high, but it offers two big advantages-significant reductions in fuel cost and secondly substantial revenue earned from selling fertilizer. Our studies show that if the MHD generator works at 60% thermal efficiency, over 80MW power can be produced throughout the day.