Experimental Study of Abuja’s Municipal Solid Waste for Energy Production Using Scanning Electron Microscopy Techniques

Abstract

In the face of the negative effects caused by the use of fossil fuels for energy production on the climate due to global warming, it becomes imperative to investigate the feasibility of using renewable energy sources such as municipal solid waste (MSW). This work investigates the potential of municipal solid waste (MSW) in Abuja, Nigeria, as a renewable energy source using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) analyses of selected samples for characterisation. The elemental constitution and potential combustion characteristics of Abuja’s MSW were investigated in this work. The presence of key material elements in the study samples were used to predict incineration behavior and environmental implications. Also, grain size distributions and morphological characteristics that might affect combustion rates and incineration efficacy were determined in the study. Procedures followed in this work were according to ASTM E 1508 for the application of SEM for the identification of materials present in the bottom ash formed from the incineration of samples of Abuja’s MSW. The plots generated indicate that silicon and iron were the major elements contained in the bottom ash formed with their values being highest at 49.5 and 19.55%, respectively. Also, the content of sulphur was shown to be very minimal in the study, being less than 3.5% for all samples tested. Abuja’s MSW samples had grain size distribution in the range of 3.5 -16 mm, which would require shredding in order to have positive impact on combustion rate. This present work demonstrates sufficiently that Abuja’s MSW will have a high level of environmental friendliness as a fuel due its low sulphur content, compared to fossil fuels.