Feasibility Report on Renewable Energy Assignment
Question
Content — Key Criteria: An executive summary of no more than one page, setting the scene, highlighting the major findings from your report and offering recommendations. Indication of how/why your chosen option is innovative Clear indication of sustainability issues (social, economic and environmental) being addressed.
Identify how the sustainability issues apply and provide assessment of their relevance to engineers.
Clear indication of any ethical issues which may relate and how they have been addressed
Analyse/evaluate the relevant issues and express your own opinions and thoughts
Challenges faced in producing the required information and how you overcame them including your recommendations and lessons learnt. Indicate the competencies you believe you may have demonstrated and to what. extent (refer to relevant section on Blackboard) Model poster available via blackboard.
Answer
Executive Summary: Energy is a necessity for human existence. There are several energy sources, such as coal and petroleum products, which are used commercially for many useful reasons. fossil fuels have become of the basic driver of the economy and the fall in the mechanism of human survival to the extent that it has become almost impossible to think of a world without fossil fuels. However, this energy source will not last forever, making it important to consider alternative and renewable sources of energy to drive the economy.
Innovation in the Topic: Energy can be identified as the sole reason for the existence of all life forms on Earth. People rely heavily on various fuels such as coal or fossil fuels to meet their daily energy needs. Each sectors including the energy, transport, cooking and heating corresponds to 88% of the fuel that needs excavation. The use of fossil fossils is expected to exceed the consumption of oil in 2017. On the other hand, emissions of greenhouse gases are increasing rapidly, and carbon dioxide is the main contributor. Another global challenge for energy supply is the depletion of fossil fuels. Due to the increasing demand, the availability of fossil fuels has decreases. In addition, traditional oil and gas reserves are mainly found in politically unstable countries, which reduces their ease of use.
In this context, biogas can be extracted from waste, animal manure or energy crops to meet the growing energy needs of the future. Biogas can be defined as a source of renewable energy that can replace fossil fuels in the production of energy and heat, as well as in the transport sector. It has the ability to replace natural gas to produce chemicals and LPG for cooking.
Addressing to and Assessment for Sustainability Issues: The claims that biomass is the fourth largest source of energy in the world, after one of the promising alternatives for energy generation technologies that established power plants for oil, coal, gas and biomass from fossil fuels.
The organic material which is derived from the plans and other vegetation is known as biomass. The biomass has been derived from the plants in a sustainable approach. The raw materials that are used for the production of the biomass includes wood, crops, plats and vegetation, agricultural waste products etc. The food waste and animal as well as plant wastes are also used for the production of the biomass.
Ethical Issues – Analysis and Evaluation: The ethical issues that needs to be considered in the production of the biomass includes the consideration of the future of production of the energy in the same format. As the energy here is produced from a natural resource, it is very important to understand if the source is renewable or not. If the source is a non-renewable resource, the production done from the source should be kept in the check so that exploitation of the resources does not happen. The production of the biomass should also consider the pollution which they might cause in the process of production, and the needs of the people living near the area of production.
Production Challenges and Recommendations: The production challenges of the biomass depend of the resource planning. The raw material for the production of the biomass or bio gas has to be obtained, and should be done in such a way that the resources are not exploit. The generation of electricity from biomass also depends on technological improvements to increase efficiency on a small scale and on a large scale. The main problems relate to the production of biomass (intensive agriculture, conservation of biological diversity) and competition in the country with the production of food.
References/Bibliography
Weiland, P. (2010). Biogas production: current state and perspectives. Applied microbiology and biotechnology, 85(4), 849-860.
Sreekrishnan, T. R., Kohli, S., & Rana, V. (2004). Enhancement of biogas production from solid substrates using different techniques––a review. Bioresource technology, 95(1), 1-10.
Berglund, M., & Börjesson, P. (2006). Assessment of energy performance in the life-cycle of biogas production. Biomass and Bioenergy, 30(3), 254-266.
