Technical And Economic Study of Energy Production from Biogas Produced in Wastewater Treatment Plants (Case Study: Water and Wastewater Company of Mashhad)

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Assistant Professor, Economics Research Department, Academic Center for Education, Culture and Research (ACECR), Mashhad, Iran.

2 PHD Student of Economics, Economics Research Department, Academic Center for Education, Culture and Research (ACECR), Mashhad, Iran.

3 Master of Civil Engineering, Director of Energy Office of Mashhad Water and Wastewater Company, Mashhad, Iran.

4 Master of Civil Engineering, CEO of Biodynamic Process Company, Mashhad, Iran.

5 Master of Economics, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran

6 PhD in Economics, Expert of Water and Wastewater Company of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran.

Abstract
Energy production is one of the most important current needs of the world, the reduction of fossil fuel sources and energy imbalance has doubled the need for renewable energy production. In this research, the biogas obtained from urban sewage sludge, the estimation and the amount of electricity produced was calculated and according to the price of renewable electricity and the costs and revenues of implementing such a project, its calculations were implemented in Excel. The user (or decision-maker or investor), by entering the necessary specifications, sees the amount of electricity produced and the amount of income from it in the output, and then calculates the amount of fixed cost and annual variable cost and enters it. In Excel, in the output, economic indicators such as the producer price of each kilowatt, the internal rate of return (IRR), the investment return period, and the project's net present value (NPV) can be seen. The example of this research is one of the wastewater treatment plants in Mashhad, the results showed that the cost of electricity in this way was equal to 36318 Rials per kilowatt, which is compared to the average purchase rate of renewable electricity in 1402, which is equal to 21800 Rials.; The economic justification of the implementation of such a project will be destroyed for the investor, so suggestions in this field were presented in the research.

Keywords

Subjects


منابع
[1] Pokhrel, S., Amiri, L., Poncet, S., Sasmito, A. P., & Ghoreishi-Madiseh, S. A, Renewable heating solutions for buildings; a techno-economic comparative study of sewage heat recovery and Solar Borehole Thermal Energy Storage System, Energy and Buildings, Vol. 259, Article 111892, 2022.
[2] Eurostat, Percentage population connected to the sewage system, www.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/ten00020/default/table?lang=en. Accessed, 2022.
[3] Farouk, H., Lang, A., Tahir, F., & Al-Ghamdi, S. G, Sewage wastewater: A potential energy source for boosting power generation in the Khartoum state of Sudan, Energy Reports, Vol 8,  pp. 384-389, 2022.
[4] MLIT (Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism), Water and waste water, 2020.
[5] Israel Bernardo S. PobleteOfélia de Queiroz F. AraújoJosé Luiz de Medeiros, Sewage-water treatment with bio-energy production and carbon capture and storage, Chemosphere, Vol. 286, Part 2 Article 131763, 2022.
[6] Liu, H., Qiao, H., Liu, S., Wei, G., Zhao, H., Li, K., & Weng, F, Energy, environment and economy assessment of sewage sludge incineration technologies in China, Energy, Vol. 264, Article 126294, 2022.
[7] Wang, K., & Nakakubo, T, Strategy for introducing sewage sludge energy utilization systems at sewage treatment plants in large cities in Japan: A comparative assessment, Journal of Cleaner Production, Vol. 316, Article 128282, 2021.
[8] arotenuto, A., Di Fraia, S., Massarotti, N., Sobek, S., Uddin, M. R., Vanoli, L., & Werle, S., Predictive modeling for energy recovery from sewage sludge gasification, Energy, Vol. 263, Part B, Article 125838, 2022.
[9] Hameledar, M., Yousefi, H., Nooralhi, Y., and Fahimi H., R., Taking advantage of the potentials of the water and sewage industry for distributed production. clean energy, Journal of Ecohydrology; Vol. 5, No. 4, pp. 1147-1160, 2017. (In Persian)
 [10] Ghanbari, R., Rezazadeh, S., Dadovand, A., and Kamrani, M., Investigating the necessity of using renewable energy with the approach of measuring the potential of energy extraction from urban sewage biomass. Conference of power plants of the country Hormozgan, 2013. (In Persian)
[11] Yavari, Z., Shi'i, H.; Nadafi, K.; Izanlou, H.; Khazaei, M., and Mahmoudian, M. H., Investigating the production of electricity from synthetic wastewater treatment in microbial fuel cells. Journal of Qom University of Medical Sciences; Vol. 6, No. 4, pp. 96-103.2011. (In Persian)
 [12] Mozhari, E.; Mozafari, M., H., and Esfandiari, R., Use of sewage treatment plant sludge in electricity production. Scientific-expert quarterly journal of renewable and new energies; No. 2, pp. 45-49.2013. (In Persian)
 [13] Salmani, F., Amiri-Rad, E., and Salimi, M., Feasibility of building two units of simultaneous production of heat and electricity with 
biogas in Kashan urban wastewater treatment plant. Journal of mechanical engineering, Vol. 47, No. 3, pp. 325-331,2016. (In Persian)
 [14]Sadeghi, Z., Mehdizadeh, S., Hari, H., Economic and environmental evaluation of energy production from sewage in Kerman, Journal: Research of Agricultural Economy, Vol. 8, No. 2, pp. 113-131.2015. (In Persian)
 [15] Faridizad, Gh.; Abdulzadeh Sh., Elham and Bankdarpour, B., High rate activated sludge process: new insights for energy recovery from urban wastewater, Journal of Iranian Chemical Engineering, Vol.19, No.113, pp. 28-46. 2019. (In Persian)
 [16] Gilani, H., and Sahibi, H., Sewage sludge supply chain with water and energy interrelationship under disturbance conditions: A stable scenario-based model, Journal: Supply Chain Management, Vol. 23, No. 72, pp. 55-70.2023. (In Persian)
[17] Badlians Gh., Gakig and Kashi Tarash Isfahani, Z., Investigation and evaluation of sewage sludge as a source of living biomass for energy production. The first national conference on environmental protection and planning, 2013. (In Persian)
[18[ Porzaki, A., Investigation Of The Possibility Of Energy Extraction In The Sewage Network, research project, consultant: Sepehr Arian Negin Pjohan Innovation Company, employer: Mashhad Water and Wastewater Company, 2023. (In Persian)
[19] Metcalf and Eddy, Wastewater Engineering; Treatment And Reuse: McGraw-Hill, pp.80-90, 2003.
[20] Chahartaghi, M., Technical and economic feasibility of changing sludge aerobic system to anaerobic system in Khin Arab and Altimur treatment plants, Shahrood University of Technology, pp. 9-13, 2018. (In Persian)
[21] Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas, pp.1–20, 2006.
[22] Skoonjad M. M., Engineering Economics, Economic Evaluation of Industrial Projects, Amirkabir University of Technology Publications, pp. 8-60, 2013. (In Persian)
[23] A C. Shen, Pilot-scale Study on Anaerobic Digestion Applied to a Saline Industrial Waste Activated Sludge, pp. 18-40, 2008.
Volume 12, Issue 2 - Serial Number 24
September 2025
Pages 95-105

  • Receive Date 24 August 2024
  • Revise Date 08 November 2024
  • Accept Date 11 March 2025