Date Palm Waste as a RE Source in Egypt. A technical and economic analysis

Master's Thesis from the year 2020 in the subject Economy - Environment economics, grade: 1.7, University of Kassel, language: English, abstract: The main objective of this thesis is to increase the usage of natural sources available in Egypt, therefore by increasing renewable energy usage efficiently and economically.

Tons of date palm waste are being burned or buried without any use, so this thesis helps to understand the importance of the material in the region, how it can change the country's energy production by series of experimental trials and analysis thereby, promoting green energy. Along with the date palm material, how other locally available resources from animals e.g. (chicken manure) can be mixed and used as a supplement for the material availability also being acknowledged.

Another objective is to analyze whether it is economically feasible to use date palm leaf stem, compared with another biofuel, i.e.(wood) and hybridize the energy production with fossil fuels.

This work is about bioenergy in the region Egypt, where the biomass, date palm trees are grown and cultivated from several centuries. The waste of the date palm trees which in abundantly available i.e. leaf stem has a huge potential with its high HHV, calorific value and low moisture content as a renewable energy source additionally, chicken manure as a supplement to use the natural resources to the core and how can it be utilized to cut down the fossil fuel resources and increase use of renewable energy.

The technical analysis deals with the fuel characterization for the ultimate and proximate analysis, where the former determines the C, O, N, and H content in the biomass, the latter determines the Fixed Moisture and Carbon, Ash Content and Volatile matter content in the biomass in comparison with wood.

The economic analysis deals with the cost calculations for all the technical analysis process with reference to CAPEX, OPEX with respect to Egypt, the best suited methodology, environmental-socio impacts, SWOT analysis identifying chances and challenges, feasibility of the biomass technology compared with wood and suggesting the potential to hybridize with fossil fuels, with limitations of emissions factor, ash disposal and chlorine control, achieving biomass energy production through date palm waste on a large scale run in the near future.