Muhaimin Iqbal
Author

Agglomeration of Waste, Emissions and Regenerative Energy

Advanced Renewable

Tue , 23 Apr 2024 21:42 WIB

These days there is a lot of talk about the agglomeration of Jakarta with the surrounding buffer cities. However, what I am highlighting is not the political issue, but rather 3 big problems and opportunities for solutions. The three big problems are related to waste, emissions and energy security.

For waste, in Jakarta alone currently emits 7,500 - 8,000 tons of waste every day, if there is no disruption in waste handling - the problem of landfill availability will continue to haunt Jakarta. If we combine this with the surrounding cities, according to our estimates, this waste volume will increase to 12,000 tons of waste per day.

For emissions, there are around 1.1 GW of fossil fuel power plants in this region. The total emissions are around 26,400 tonnes of CO2 per day, purely from power plants. Emissions from the transportation sector are even greater, around 2 times the electricity generation emissions for this region.

Regarding energy issues, the need for electrical energy will increase in addition to keeping pace with population and economic growth, as well as due to the electrification of transportation, electric vehicles, electric trains, etc.

These three problems have always been thought of as three different problems, also by different teams - the result is that three problems are still three problems, whether agglomerated or not - these three problems will be difficult to overcome if handled separately from each other. So what's the solution?

What we offer is one solution for all three at once, namely the Regenerative Energy (RE) mindset solution! How concrete is it? First, all the waste is disposed of, of the 12,000 tons of waste per day, only about 1/4 of the waste can be picked up by scavengers, the rest is what piles up in the landfill. What usually ends up in the landfill is all converted into activated and functionalized charcoal (AFC). The result will be 3,000 tons of AFC per day, so what is it for?

AFC to absorb the CO2 mentioned above, 3,000 tons of AFC will be able to capture 11,100 tons of CO2 or 42% of the total emissions from the 1.1 GW power plant. If this AFC plus CO2 is reacted in the Boudouard reaction, it will become 14,100 tons of CO gas, which if used as generator fuel will be enough for the equivalent of 490 MW capacity, or 45% of the fuel needs of a 1.1 GW generator.

From this series we can see that the emissions problem has been resolved by 42%, the problem of electricity demand has been resolved by 45%, and waste has been resolved by 100%. Nice problem to have, all the waste in the Jakarta agglomeration is used up and it's not even enough to capture the CO2 emitted by the existing power plant, there is a chance that other areas have the same waste problem - join this solution, convert your waste into AFC, because this is where this solution begins!