Design of an Economically Viable Process of Generating Electricity from Municipal Solid Waste (House Waste) in Nigeria

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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Problem Statement

Solid wastes could be defined as non-liquid and nongaseous products of human activities, regarded as being useless. It could take the forms of refuse, garbage and sludge. Cities in Nigeria, being among the fast growing cities in the world are faced with the problem of solid waste generation. The implication is serious when a country is growing rapidly and the wastes are not efficiently managed. Waste generation scenario in Nigeria has been of great concern both globally and locally. Of the different categories of wastes being generated, solid wastes had posed a hydra-headed problem beyond the cope of various solid waste management systems in Nigeria, as the streets experience continual presence of solid waste from commercial activities. Various researchers have undertaken to study solid waste generation pattern in Nigeria, but most of the studies are usually a case study of a particular state or locality in Nigeria; and it seems the awareness about solid waste generation in several other cities are obscured.

Energy is the mainstay of Nigeria's economic growth and development. It plays a significant role in the nation's international diplomacy and it serves as a tradable commodity for earning the national income, which is used to support government development programmes. It also serves as an input into the production of goods and services in the nation's industry, transport, agriculture, health and education sectors, as well as an instrument for politics, security and diplomacy (Aina, 1990).

Energy, and in particular, oil and gas, has continued to contribute over 70% of Nigeria's Federal revenue. National developmental programmes, and security, depend largely on these revenue earnings. Energy, especially crude oil, has over the past five years contributed an average of about 25% to Nigeria's Gross Domestic Product (GDP), representing the highest contributor after crop production (Harper, 2010). The contribution of energy to GDP is expected to be higher when we take into account renewable energy utilization, which constitutes about 90% of the energy used by the rural population. It should be noted that Nigeria which is located between longitude 3o and 14o East of Greenwich and latitude 4o and 14o north of equator has about 140 million people and a total land area of 923,768 km2.

The energy sub-sector, especially petroleum, continues to maintain its prominence as the single most important source of government revenue and foreign exchange earner. Petroleum contributed an average 25.24% to the GDP between 2002 and 2006. However, despite the fortunes of the oil sector, other sectors of the economy are declining. For example, consumption of electricity actually declined by 13.4% between 2002 and 2006 even though the overall or total electricity consumption showed a marginal increase of 1.8% from 5.63GWh in 2002 to 7.47GWh in 2006. Only about 40% of households in Nigeria are connected to the national grid. There is high-energy loss due to the physical deterioration of the transmission and distribution facilities, an inadequate metering system and ...