Potential of power generation from chicken waste-based biodiesel, economic and environmental analysis: Bangladesh’s perspective

This study outlined the potential of biodiesel production from chicken fat waste and electricity generation from biodiesel on the scenario of remote region, Kuakata, located at southeastern Bangladesh based on the cost comparison between diesel and biodiesel-based power generation by HOMER software. The main objective of this case study was to address an integrated simulation-based research outcome to manage chicken skin waste (fat) for biodiesel, generate electricity from the biodiesel and present the potential of greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction from environment by product implementation. Approximate electric load profile of Kuakata and comprehensive emission modeling for this region has been performed by fuel-switching model and RETScreen Expert software. The simulation outcomes presented that 492,695 L/year biodiesel can be produced from chicken skin waste in Kuakata and converted into 883 MWh electricity per annum. The operating cost was 188,062 $/year, and cost of energy production was 0.214 $/kWh. The outcomes from this simulation modeling also demonstrated that the annual fuel consumption for base case is 3.7 kWh/m2 while 1.5 kWh/m2 is for proposed case with the reduction of 2.2 kWh/m2 per year. The calculation and simulation results also presented 70.3% GHG reduction in the region which presented drastic drop of environmental pollution.