City government assured of clean technology

CEBU, Philippines - The Greenergy Solutions Inc. (GSI) assured the Cebu City Government and the public that the proposed Waste-to-Energy project to rise in the current Inayawan Sanitary Landfill will use proven and clean waste conversion technologies in addressing the garbage problem of the city.

The assurance came after a city councilor made public her reservations on the project.

The proposed WTE is still pending at the city council, particularly at the committee of Councilor Nida Cabrera who chairs the committee on environment.

 GSI Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Ruth Briones said in a statement that the WTE project will be implemented in accordance with the Project Design Document of the Cebu City Waste to Energy Gasification Facility registered as Project 4669 with the Clean Development Mechanism – United Nations’ Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC).

She said the technologies they will employ, one of which is Anaerobic Digestion, are approved by the UNFCC and are widely used across the world.

Anaerobic digestion is used to produce methane from organic waste. The proposed WTE project will use anaerobic digestion through a covered inground anaerobic reactor.

The methane is then fed into a series of gas engines to produce electrical power and heat.

The organic waste will be reduced to a stable solid residue and sold as compost or fertilizer while the indigestible non-recyclable fraction will be converted into Refused Derived Fuel.

The RDF product will be gasified to syngas that will also be used to produce electricity.

The WTE facility, if materialized will clean-up the 1.8-million residual waste at the landfill in four years at the same time process the daily generated garbage in 25 years, which is the term of the proposed contract.

“The Project Developers will strictly implement the project design in accordance with the Clean Air Act and Ecological Solid Waste Management Act. Its implementation will be monitored and supervised by a committee to be created by UNFCCC and the Philippine Government,” Briones said.

“We will comply with the strict laws and rules pertaining to the Philippine environment. Our intention is to clear Cebu City from landfill pollution at the same time will provide a zero waste City. There are measures to dispose and treat waste, but not necessary using the process of incineration. We are one with any environmental groups in the country against waste incineration. And we will never use incineration to get rid of the garbage,” she added.

The project, Briones said, will reduce the greenhouse gas emission, thus, improving the air quality. It will also completely rehabilitate the landfill and turn over it to the city government for use.

The project will cost P4 billion which will be finance by a consortium of foreign developers and investors. It will not cost any centavo from the city government. (FREEMAN)