Electric energy generation from biogas derived from municipal solid waste using two systems: landfills and anaerobic digesters in the states of Sa tilde o Paulo and Minas Gerais, Brazil

This study seeks to evaluate the potential electric power generation using biogas derived from municipal solid waste (MSW) stations in the states of Sao Paulo and Minas Gerais, Brazil, that operate under two systems, using landfill technology and anaerobic digesters. We analyzed these ventures' economic viability by accounting for sales of surplus energy at Energy Auction, while also taking the compensation system set up for Distributed Generation into account using an algorithm developed in Scilab (R) by Silva et al. [1]. The sum of optimum power for each landfill for Sao Paulo and Minas Gerais, respectively was 139.5 MW (977,778.8 MWh/year) and 14 MW (82,218.4 MWh/year). The estimated power generated using anaerobic digesters in Sao Paulo was 130 MW (878,307.5 MWh/year) for case A and 160.4 MW (1,085,480.1) for case B. In Minas Gerais, these values were 15 MW (100,938.2 MWh/year) for case A and 17.5 MW for case B (116,162.9 MWh/ year). The energy results were positive for both systems analyzed. The financial results were favorable for a considerable portion of the ventures, particularly for systems using biogas derived from sanitary landfills. The scenarios that took the energy compensation system into account had the best results for both systems.