ANNOUNCEMENT FOR STUDENT CONTEST PROBLEM COMPETITION 2012 EURECHA - The European Committee for Computers in Chemical Engineering

Education
This contest problem is open to Bachelor/Master/PhD level students. The participants have approximately three months to prepare and submit solutions to the problem no later than April the 30th 2012, 24:00. Solutions can be prepared by individuals or by teams. The written report, a pdf file written in English and not exceeding 15 pages (including figures) should be packed (zip format) with any other support files (Annexes, Spread Sheets, Simulation Input files, etc.) and sent to EURECHA secretariat as E-mail attachment to eurecha.secretariat@gmail.com. The jury will select the best solution, based on technical excellence (i.e. cost effectiveness, energy efficiency, environmental impact, social impact, etc.), quality of the report and originality. The winner will receive: An invitation to get the award at the ESCAPE-22 symposium, to be held in London, United Kingdom, June 17-22, 2012. http://www.escape22.org/ A money transfer of 1000 EUR, after the ESCAPE-22 meeting (to cover the travel and accommodation expenses, rest as a gift). Selected solution will be posted on the EURECHA web site.

Problem: Design of a Biomass Power Plant

Malaysia is aiming to reduce 40% of its carbon dioxide emissions by 2020. To foster the development of the renewable energy power generation industry in Malaysia, Company X has decided to build a 12.5 MW biomass power plant under the Small Renewable Energy Power (SREP) Programme. The plant will be located in Teluk Intak District in the State of Perak, Malaysia. Currently, the electricity in the district is supplied to the grid by fossil fuel fired power plants. The aim of the project is to supply 10 MW net electricity to the Peninsula Malaysia National Grid (PMNG) electricity distribution system via a 11 kV local electricity substation. The balance (2.5 MW) is to be consumed for parasitic consumption by auxiliary equipment. The company would like to build the power plant based on the available biomass resources in that area. Some palm oil mills in the vicinity of the area dispose their empty fruit bunch (EFB) waste via incineration or use the EFB for other purposes such as mulching and fertiliser. Other mills dispose of their EFB via anaerobic decomposition in solid waste disposal sites (SWDS) without methane recovery. The methane produced due to the anaerobic decay of the EFB in the SWDS contributes to greenhouse gas emissions. The EFB is available at 60% moisture content. There are approximately 170,000 tonnes/yr of EFB that could be outsourced from SWDS and 110,000 tonnes/yr of EFB from the nearby mills. Other biomass wastes may also be considered as alternative secondary fuels due to their abundant availability. Your team is required to design a zero emission biomass power plant based on this information considering all important elements of sustainability (social, environmental and economy). The solution must ensure that all wastes are converted into value added products. Please provide the process flow sheet and process description together with the summary of mass and energy balance table. Estimate also the cost of the plant and the system plant layout. State all assumptions clearly. Explain why you or your team decided the design that you proposed. Note that any wastewater must be treated before discharged into waterways in compliance with the Malaysian Department of Environment Effluent Discharge Standards A (See Table 1). Data was adopted from: Eco2data. http://eco2data.com/project/54487. Accessed on 23 Dec 2011.

Table 1: Parameter Limits of Effluent of Standards A and B. Parameter (1) (i) Temperature (ii) pH Value (iii) BOD5 at 20C (iv) COD (v) Suspended Solids (vi) Mercury (vii) Cadmium (viii) Chromium, Hexavalent (ix) Arsenic (x) Cyanide (xi) Lead (xii) Chormium, Trivalent (xiii) Copper (xiv) Manganese (xv) Nickel (xvi) Tin (xvii) Zinc (xviii) Boron (xix) Iron (Fe) (xx) Phenol (xxi) Free Chlorine (xxii) Sulphide (xxiii) Oil and Grease mg/l mg/l mg/l mg/l mg/l mg/l mg/l mg/l mg/l mg/l mg/l mg/l mg/l mg/l mg/l mg/l mg/l mg/l mg/l mg/l mg/l Unit (2) C Standard A Standard B (3) 40 6.0 - 9.0 20 50 50 0.005 0.01 0.05 0.05 0.05 0.10 0.20 0.20 0.20 0.20 0.20 1.0 1.0 1.0 0.001 1.0 0.50 Not detectable (4) 40 5.5 - 9.0 50 100 100 0.05 0.02 0.05 0.10 0.10 0.5 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 4.0 5.0 1.0 2.0 0.50 10

Source: http://www.water-treatment.com.cn/resources/discharge-standards/malaysia.htm