Walter Leal Filho

Strategies Developed by DIREKT for the Small Island Developing States to Enhance Renewable Energy Utilisation

Given the current global situation of scarce energy resources, rapidly rising fossil-fuel prices and drastic climate changes, it is recognised that the promotion and application of Renewable Energy (RE) and Energy Efficient (EE) technologies is of vital importance for sustainable socioeconomic development in the Small Island Developing States (SIDS). The DIREKT network (Small Developing Island Renewable Energy Knowledge and Technology Transfer) is a teamwork scheme that involves the participation and collaboration of various universities from Germany, Fiji, Mauritius, Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago. The aim of the DIREKT project is to reinforce science and technology competency in the domain of renewable energy through technology transfer, information exchange and networking, targeting ACP (Africa, Caribbean, Pacific) SIDS as they are more vulnerable to problems associated with climate change. The overall objectives of the DIREKT project consist, basically, of enhancing sustainable collaboration between the participant countries and the EU, and transferring research results on the key topic of renewable energies, by putting into operation “technology transfer centres” in the participant countries. To help in achieving these aims, the partners of the DIREKT project have set up short-term, medium-term and long-term strategies to be applied to SIDS.

Energy Recovery from Biodegradable Waste in the Grain Processing Industry

Short Description (maximum 2500 characters) The management of biodegradable (BD) waste is one of the most important environmental problems in the grain processing industry. BD waste enters to the production with unprocessed raw materials, later it generates in every stage of grain processing until raw material becomes comodity. BD waste from grain processing is considered to be non hazardous waste and is clasified in category 02 03 of the European waste catalogue. BD waste management, especially dumping, becomes increasingly expensive and one of the most popular ways to deal with this waste today is composting. The paper is focused on analysis of the possibility to use BD waste for production of alternative fuel. Cleaner production audit revealed two most significant aspects: (1) the generation of biodegradable waste in grain processing is up to 18.3 kg/t of product; (2) energy consumption is up to 108.3 kWh/t of product. Theoretical and experimental investigation in a pilot grain processing company have proved that the use of biodegradable waste for production of alternative fuel in addition to energy produced would reduce the amount of BD waste up to 8.51 kg/t of product. The mass and energy balances of the processes mentioned above, environmental and economical benefits are presented and discussed in the paper.