Journal of Environment and Waste Management

JEWM

Vol. 2(1), pp. 056-058, February, 2015. www.premierpublishers.org,ISSN: 1936-8798x

Short Communication

Study of municipal solid waste of Delhi for energy

content
Sushmita Mahapatra
Associate Professor in Bharati Vidyapeeth College of Engineering, A 4, Paschim Vihar, New Delhi 11006, India
Email: monty_s3@yahoo.com, Tel.:011 2578443, Fax: 01125275436
Solid waste management has become a global problem. Littering of wastes on streets not
only causes inconvenience and aesthetic problems, but also has a lot of impact on human
health Municipal Solid Waste Management (MSWM) is highly neglected aspect of Delhi. At
present approximately 6000 tons of waste is generated per day which is disposed in the
three existing landfills. The three landfills are almost saturated therefore some alternate
method of disposal should be designed. The present paper discusses the energy content of
MSW of Delhi so that some suitable technology can be adopted for the disposal of wastes.
Generally evaluation of the heating value of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) is done
experimentally by using bomb calorimeter and theoretically by using Dulongs equation. In
this paper, regression analysis is used to develop a predictive model of the energy content
for MSW of Delhi.
Keywords: Solid wastes, landfill, Incineration, dulongs equation

INTRODUCTION
Growth of population and Industrialization has led to
human activities as a result of which huge amount of
solid wastes is generated. This generated waste thus
needs to be collected, transported and finally disposed
off. Dumping of these wastes (which was practiced
earlier) has caused lots of damage to the environment.
Therefore, disposal methods must be adequately
selected so that the waste could be disposed off
without any further environmental problems.
In Delhi about 6000 tons of MSW are generated per
day and the average per capita generation of MSW in
Indian cities varies between 0.4 0.6 Kg/day (Khan
and Naved 2003). The per capita generation of MSW in
Delhi is the highest which is approximately 0.65 Kg/day.
Delhi has the largest municipal body in the world
providing services to an estimated population of 17
million people (in 2014) covering an area of ~ 1400 Km2
(Manual on Municipal Solid Waste Management 2000)
There are three agencies that are mainly responsible
for solid waste management in Delhi i.e. Municipal
Corporation of Delhi (MCD), the New Delhi Municipal
Corporation (NDMC) and the Delhi Cantonment Board
(DCB). Of these, the Conservancy and Sanitation

Engineering (CSE) Department of MCD bears the

maximum burden, as it is responsible for 1399 km2 of
the total territory of 1484.5 km2. There is also a wide
variation in the generation of wastes observed while
moving from low to high income groups as reported in
the MSW management, 2000 (Notification by Ministry
of Environment and Forests Issued on 25th September,
2000) As part of the data collected and compiled,
(Bhoyar Titus Bhide and Khanna 1996) showed that
most places in Delhi lack proper collection facilities.
Hence, transportation, collection and disposal have
become labor intensive activities. The only method of
disposal of waste is landfills. In Delhi, at present there
are three landfills which are in use (MCD Delhi 2012).
The three landfills that are functional are at Ghazipur,
Okhla and Bhalswa and have nearly reached their full
capacity. The two composting plants include a MCD
owned and operated plant in Okhla and a privately
owned and operated plant in Bhalswa. Large scale
composting plants are not economically beneficial and
are highly dependent on the ready market for the
product. As the energy content of the waste disposed in
the landfill is high incinerating the MSW

Study of municipal solid waste of Delhi for energy content

Mahapatra

056

Table 1. Details of zonewise survey (Figures in %)

Greenpark

Trilokpuri

Naveen Sahadra

Chandnimahal

Outremline

Kutub road

Aryasamaj

Sundarnagri

Ata Thakurdas

Shakurpur

Mongolpuri

Subhasnagar

Physical
Composition
Foodwastes
Paper
Plastic
Textile
Glass
Metals
Dirt
Ash
etc.

9.7
2.7
1.9
12.4
2.3
0.9

5.6
8.6
11.1
11.4
8.6
6.7

40.7
5.9
4.7
4
4.8
1.7

5.5
8.7
6.2
6.5
6.1
4.4

10.6
9.7
5.8
5.6
8.1
3.2

9.6
2.7
2
12.6
2.3
0.9

3.7
4.1
3.3
0.7
3.3
3.4

42.1
3.8
1.3
10.1
4.4
1.2

57.7
7.7
5.8
7.7
5.8
3.8

5.6
8.6
11.2
13
9.1
6.8

6
10.5
9.9
13.3
16.9
14.8

8
6.1
48
3.7
5
1.2

70.1

23

34.2

56.9

39.4

69.9

72

19.1

11.5

22.9

16.5

24.9

# Source: white paper on pollution in Delhi with an action plan government of India ministry of environment &
forests chapter 5 (1997)

appears to be one of the options for management of

municipal solid waste of any area (Qudais and Qdais
2000)

G = garbage, percent weight on dry basis

P= paper, percent weight on dry basis
W = water, percent on dry basis

Energy Content of MSW of Delhi

Equation used for ultimate analysis is Dulong Model {2}

H = 81 C + 342.5 (H-O/8) + 22.5 S 6 (9H+W), where
H = net calorific value (Kcal/kg)
C = Carbon (% wt)
H = Hydrogen (% wt)
O = Oxygen (%wt)
S = Sulphur (% wt)

The determination of heating value of MSW is done

either experimentally using a bomb calorimeter or
theoretically using mathematical models. The models
are based on the physical composition, proximate or
elemental analysis. The disadvantage of using
Dulongs equation (elemental analysis) is that the
sample size used for this equation is very small (1-10
mg) and skilled workers are required to carry out the
analysis (Jimenez andGonalez. 1991, Dermirbas 1996,
5 (76) and9/10 , Raveendran and Ganesh 1996
Fernadez, Diaz and Xiberta 1997). On the other hand,
the models which are based on proximate analysis or
physical composition (Liu ,Paode and Holsen 1996 and
Reddy, Basha, Joshi, Sravan, Jha and Ghosh 2005) fit
well within the locality but do not give good results for
other places. Thus considering the above factors, this
paper aims to develop a new model for the calculation
of HCV (high calorific value) for Delhi. The equations
proposed in this model are based on data either from
the physical, proximate or elemental analysis of MSW
of Delhi (as collected from various sources). The
physical composition analysis is based on the heat
generated from various sources like paper, plastic,
garbage etc. The elemental analysis is based on the
percentage of carbon, oxygen, nitrogen and sulfur in
the waste while the proximate analysis includes an
assessment of moisture, volatile combustible matter
fixed carbon and ash. Since the MSW of any area is
highly heterogeneous in nature the HCV calculated by
proximate or elemental analysis is not very accurate.
Thus an attempt is made to find the heating value using
physical composition. The following equations are
used for the development of the model.
H = 88.2 R + 40.5 (G+P) 6 W ,where
{1}
H = net calorific value (Kcal/kg)
R = plastic, percent weight on dry basis

Equation used for proximate analysis Traditional Model

H= 45 B 6 W where
{3}
H = net calorific value (Kcal/kg)
B = combustible volatile matter
W = water (% dry basis)

MATERAL AND METHOD

A systematic approach in managing solid waste is
necessary because there is a variation in the
composition of MSW from area to area. A detailed
physical composition of MSW has been carried out
zone wise in Delhi by NEERI in 2000 The analysis
covered all areas such as high income group (HIG),
middle income group (MIG), vegetable market,
industrial areas, construction sites etc. The components
of waste identified in the analysis are food waste,
paper, plastic, textile, glass and metal (as shown in
Table 1).
For sample calculation, Modified Dulongs Equation is
used, which is :
E= 81C + 342.5 (H-O/8) + 22.5 S 6(9H-W)

{4}

Where, E is the energy content (HHV) of waste in

Kcal/Kg and C, H, O, S & W are percentage weight of
Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen, Sulfur and water

J Environ. Waste Manag.

057

Table 2. Data from the Ultimate Analysis of the components in residential MSW

Percent by weight (dry basis)

Component
Organic
Food waste
Paper
Cardboard
Plastics
Textiles

Carbon

Hydrogen

Oxygen

Nitrogen

Sulfur

Ash

48.0
43.5
44.0
60.0
55.0

6.4
6.0
5.9
7.2
6.6

37.6
44.0
44.6
22.8
31.2

2.6
0.3
0.3
4.6

0.4
0.2
0.2
0.15

5.0
6.0
5.0
10.0
2.5

*Organic content is from coatings, labels and other attached materials.

Table 3. The HCV values of various localities of Delhi

Localities of Delhi
Shakurpuri
Mangolpuri

HCV (kcal/kg)
0523.924
1229.65

Subhashnagar
Naveen Sahadra
Trilokpuri
Ata Thakurdas
Kutub road
Arya samaj
Chandnimahal
Outermline
Sunder nagar

1217.84
1241.55
1393.26
1757.39
1843.91
1862.18
2454.54
3378.45
3384.2

respectively. The elemental analysis of the components

in residential MSW as calculated by NEERI is given
below in Table-2 (Agarwal, Rathore and Gupta 2004)
The mass of C, H, O, N, S and Ash for food waste,
paper, plastic, rags, glass and metals is calculated on
dry basis.
RESULTS AND DSCUSSON

P = Paper
PL = Plastic
T =Textile
The average HCV of Delhi from the above table.3 is
1887.16 Kcal/kg and the actual average value of HCV
of Delhi is less than 3000 kcal/kg (from equation 4).
The difference in the theoretical and observed value is
due to the fact that the data used in the model is largely
for the low and middle income group localities.

Development of the Model

CONCLUSON
For deriving the mathematical equation
linear
regression analysis using SPSS 13 statistical software
is used. The model is based on physical composition of
MSW. The resulting regression equation can be
expressed as :
Y = B0 + B1X1 + B2X2 + + BkXk
Where Y is dependent variable, X1, X2, ..Xk are
independent variables; B0 is intercept of straight line,
B1,
B2,..Bk
are
unstandarized
regression
Coefficients The energy content is the dependent
variable and the physical composition of the waste
(Food waste,paper, plastic textile) is the independent
variable The equation which is developed from the
above model, using the various physical compositions
(in percentage weight) (Mohapatra and Gadgil 2008)
EC = 0.001 + 41.337 (FW) + 33.753 (P) + 59.611 (PL)
+ 50.346 (T)
{5}

As seen from the calculation of Energy Content of

MSW the calorific values is less than 3000Kcal/kg
whereas in the developed countries it is 9200 Kcal/kg
Hence incineration of waste alone cannot be a solution
to the problem of disposal even in the capital state of
India i.e. Delhi. Better segregation facilities at the site of
collection of waste should be provided to give a higher
value of HCV of MSW.Gasification technologies enable
conversion of MSW into value added products, such as
liquid fuels and commodity chemicals as well as
electricity, and do so at greater efficiencies than
conventional incineration (Stevens D. 1994 ) Therefore
other technological options should be also considered
for better waste management.
REFERENCES

Where, EC = Energy content of the waste in Kcal/Kg

FW = Food waste

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Study of municipal solid waste of Delhi for energy content

Mahapatra

058

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Accepted 19 January, 2015.
Citation: Mahapatra S (2015). Study of Municipal Solid
Waste of Delhi for Energy Content. Journal of
Environment and Waste Management 2(1): 056-058.

Copyright: 2014 Mahapatra S. This is an openaccess article distributed under the terms of the
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