Economic and Environmental Feasibility of Cogeneration from Food Waste: A Case Study in São Paulo City

Douglas Eldo Pereira de Oliveira, Amanda Carvalho Miranda, Milton Vieira Junior, José Carlos Curvelo Santana, Elias Basile Tambourgi, Francesco Facchini (), Raffaello Iavagnilio and Luiz Fernando Rodrigues Pinto
Additional contact information
Douglas Eldo Pereira de Oliveira: Smart and Sustainable Cities Post-Graduation Program, Nove de Julho University (UNINOVE), São Paulo 01504-001, SP, Brazil
Amanda Carvalho Miranda: Technology Center, Agreste Campus, Federal University of Pernambuco, Caruaru 5502-970, PE, Brazil
Milton Vieira Junior: Production Engineering Graduate Program, Methodist University of Piracicaba, Piracicaba 13400-390, SP, Brazil
José Carlos Curvelo Santana: Department of Industrial Engineering, Polytechnic School, São Paulo University, Av. Prof. Luciano Gualberto, 380-Butantã, São Paulo 05508-010, SP, Brazil
Elias Basile Tambourgi: School of Chemical Engineering (FEQ), State University of Campinas, Av. Albert Einstein, 6066, Barão Geraldo, Campinas 13084-970, SP, Brazil
Francesco Facchini: Department of Mechanics, Mathematics and Management, Polytechnic University of Bari, 70125 Bari, Italy
Raffaello Iavagnilio: Department of Mechanics, Mathematics and Management, Polytechnic University of Bari, 70125 Bari, Italy
Luiz Fernando Rodrigues Pinto: Smart and Sustainable Cities Post-Graduation Program, Nove de Julho University (UNINOVE), São Paulo 01504-001, SP, Brazil

Sustainability, 2024, vol. 16, issue 7, 1-17

Abstract: This paper presents a case study conducted at a food supply centre in a shopping centre in São Paulo city, Brazil. A waste digester was developed based on specifications provided by GE for the generator, and the cost of electricity production from food waste generated in the region was subsequently assessed. Results show that 1,368,750 m 3 biogas was produced for the year, which provided a reduction of 14% of electricity consumption and is equivalent to USD 854 thousand per year. The amount of carbon credits is equivalent to 10,775 metric tons of CO 2 and 51,840 tons of organic waste humus per year. The energy produced by biogas from food waste had a unit cost of 0.10 USD/kWh. At the end of the project, a profit of USD 3.087 million was achieved, which is equivalent to an ROI of 433%. There is a reduction in energy costs by USD 854 thousand per year and a payback of 1.01 years. These indicate that biogas production from food waste is economically viable.

Keywords: ecologic cost accounting; renewable energy; biogas; sustainable development; greenhouse gas mitigation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/7/2979/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/7/2979/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:16:y:2024:i:7:p:2979-:d:1369488

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().