A diagram showing how community rubbish could be converted into electricity. Designed by an agency based in Texas, USA.
By JUAN ESCANDOR JR.
NAGA CITY: Although it has never been
tried anywhere in the country, Naga City is optimistic that a P3-billion
project on a five-hectare government property can convert garbage into electric
energy while solving its waste problem.
The facility in Barangay San Isidro
could generate eight megawatts of electricity from 100 tons of trash fed into
it daily and collected from the city’s 27 villages, according to Oscar P
Orozco, head of the Naga City Environment and Natural Resources Office.
With Naga taking in more settlers and
attracting more businesses, Orozco said the present Balatas open dump could no
longer hold the volume of garbage in five years.
“The 20%-25% of trash segregated cannot
reduce the pile of garbage mounting every day,” he said in a phone interview.
Joint venture
A South Korean company, CJ Global Green
Energy, and a Japanese company, Hitachi Zosen, are expected to build the energy
plant in two years after the ground-breaking ceremony held last Nov 2.
Among those who attended the program
were Energy Secretary Carlos Jericho Petilla and Environment Secretary Ramon
Paje.
Mayor John Bongat said the pioneering
effort could be replicated in other areas.
The city government and the Department
of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) signed a joint venture agreement
for the project on Aug 24, 2010.
After an environmental review showed the
project to be viable, the process to be used in the facility was approved the
following month. On Oct 20, 2011, the project was granted an environmental
clearance certificate.
According to the DENR, the San Isidro
site, which is more than 250m away from
residential areas and other urban infrastructures, passed the international
criteria set for such plants and sanitary landfill.
Orozco said the facility would use
“gassification” or the process of converting solid wastes into gases without
combustion.
A machine pulverizes the trash and stirs
in it a very hot solvent, from which steam is generated, causing a turbine to
produce electricity.
When the steam condenses, the liquid is
collected and diverted to the first chamber to serve as solvent for the next
batches of trash in order to start another cycle.
“For every 100 tons of garbage, some
eight megawatts of electricity will be produced. CJ Global is aiming to produce
20 megawatts for each cycle,” Orozco said.
He gave assurance that no fumes or
residue would be produced to harm the surroundings because no chemical is used
to break up complex substances and convert them into hydrogen and oxygen.
The plant will be established in
accordance with Republic Act No. 9003, also known as the Ecological Solid Waste
Management Program, which encourages the establishment of such facilities and
prohibits dumps.
Distribution to consumers
Once the facility is operational, CJ
Global will offer electricity to the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines
(NGCP) or the Camarines Sur II Electric Cooperative (Casureco II) for
distribution to consumers.
“If negotiations with NGCP or Casureco
II fail, the city will assume the task of distributing and selling electric
power to consumers,” Orozco said.
The operation of the waste-to-energy
plant will also bring cash to the city government if neighboring towns would
opt to dump their garbage in a complementary landfill.
“The city will encourage nearby
municipalities to dump their garbage into the adjoining sanitary landfill for a
tipping fee of P200 per ton, a tad cheaper than keeping a dumpsite that costs
P45 million per year,” Orozco said. - Inquirer
No comments:
Post a Comment