Production of thermoelectric power from Solid Waste of Urban Lahore

The work presented in this article was undertaken to study techno-economic viability of production of thermoelectric power by incineration of solid waste of Lahore. The data were collected from both secondary and primary sources. The primary data concerning the total production and composition of solid waste were collected from different local institutions associated with solid waste management and that concerning technology of production of thermoelectric power from bagasse from Pattoki Sugar Mill and from oil fuel from Thermal Power Station Faisalabad who also supplied the prices of machinery and equipment. The data were used to design different projects that were subsequently appraised by discounted cash flow technique to determine their B/C ratio, NPV while Payback period was determined by traditional method. The enquiry indicated that currently, Lahore consumes approximately about 1,000mw/hr electricity and produces approximately 5,700 ton/day of solid waste. The electricity that can be produced from Lahore solid waste with an initial fixed investment of $29,272,333 turned out to be 85.5mwh, which forms about 1/11th of the total consumption of Lahore. The best part of the message was that the electricity from this source can be produced at the cost of less than rupee one ($0.0166670) per unit.