1. The 3E Solution to W2ESustainable waste to energy by focussing on the 3 Es EAI Presentation at RenewCon, Mumbai - Sep 30, 2011 NarasimhanSanthanam Energy Alternatives India – EAI www.eai.in
2. About EAI Aspires to be a catalyst for the Indian renewable energy and cleantech industry Dedicated focus on renewable energy and cleantech for India Diversification, feasibility studies, market entry strategy, business intelligence Founded by professionals from IITs and IIMs Based out of Chennai More from www.eai.in – see also our club, forum, mailing list… www.eai.in
3. The 3E Solution to W2E What are the problems with waste-to-energy? Why these problems? How can these problems be solved? How can technology be part of the solution? What advanced technologies are emerging? How could these advanced technologies provide a sustainable W2E solution? How do we see the future? www.eai.in
4. Waste to Energy and the 3 E Problem Environmental - Not environmentally benign (Planet) Exclusivity - Does not benefit all societal stakeholders (People) Economics - Still very costly (Profit) www.eai.in
5. Why these problems? Misalignment with nature - Nature can convert waste to more value at less cost Centralized paradigm – Waste generation is distributed, why energy generation centralized? Thinking of waste as waste – My waste is someone else’s value! www.eai.in
6. How can these problems be solved? Segregate at the gate (! – Make it easy to change habits) Cradle to cradle mentality (!-Destroy less, recover more) Recognition that waste is just value in a different form (! – Emphasise recycling, identify markets for co-products) It’s the society, stupid (!- Involve stakeholders at every possible stage – government, rag pickers, local communities, farmers…) Get local (! - Devise methods for distributed energy recovery at high efficiencies to recover energy close to generation) Not just tech, but bio+tech (! - Identify recovery methods that combine the strengths of biotech and engineering) www.eai.in
7. Technology is…only part of the solution Market Waste is value Cradle to cradle Society Segregate at the gate It’s the society, stupid! (involve stakeholders) Technology Get local (DEG) It’s bio+tech www.eai.in
12. How do we see 3E in the future W2E tech? Use of recycling and composting synergised with energy recovery Incineration being phased out Anaerobic digestion becoming cheaper and overcoming operational deficiencies Gasification going towards smaller scales (this is more a hope!) Pyrolysis gaining increasing acceptance Combinations of routes – AD and pyrolysis for instance (AD for biodigestible organics and pyrolysis for plastics etc.) Ultimately, trying to address all 3 Es www.eai.in
13. Waste is just value that we are too stupid not to use – Albert Einstein www.eai.in
