Abstract

The landfill gas (LFG) produced from the existing landfill site in Heraklion city, Crete island, Greece, is not currently exploited to its full potential. It could however be exploited for power generation and/or combined heat and power (CHP) production in near future by fully unlocking its energy production potential of the gas generated from the landfill site. This gas (LFG) could feed a 1.6 MW_el power plant corresponding to the 0.42% of the annually consumed electricity in Crete. The LFG utilization for power generation and CHP production has been studied, and the economics of three energy production scenarios have been calculated. An initial capital investment of 2.4 to 3.2 M €, with payback times (PBT) of approximately 3.5 to 6 years and Net Present Values (NPV) ranging between 2 to 6 M € have been calculated. These values prove the profitability of the attempt of bioenergy production from the biogas produced from the existing landfill site in Heraklion city, Crete. Based on the current economic situation of the country, any similar initiative could positively contribute to strengthening the economy of local community and as a result the country, offering several other socioeconomic benefits like e.g. waste minimization, creation of new job positions etc. by increasing, at the same time, the Renewable Energy Sources (RES) share in energy production sector etc. Apart from the favorable economics of the proposed waste to energy production scheme, all the additional environmental and social benefits make the attempt of a near future exploitation of the landfill gas produced in Heraklion, an attractive short term alternative for waste to bio-energy production.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.