With all the challenges facing waste to energy power plants at EU landfills, the Meath plant in Ireland is attracting increasingly more attention from other EU countries as construction continues.
The first large-scale waste to energy plant of its kind in Ireland, the facility boasts state-of-the-art energy efficient technologies [Indaver, 2010].
Recent trends in the bioenergy sector has focused mainly on biomass from plant sources as sugar cane and miscanthus sources from mainly tropical and subtropical countries like Brazil and Southern US. Ireland and most other countries have virtually untapped landfill waste resources that not only reduces fossil fuel dependency and reduce carbon emissions but a multitude of added environmental benefits.
Though EU countries have strong commitments to reducing landfill waste under the EU Directive on landfill waste: Landfill Directive 1999/31/EC, the full potential of using the landfill waste to produce electricity has not fully been explored and has received little commercial interest. According to the EU Commission for the Environment, methane production from bio-waste in landfills accounted for some 3% of total greenhouse gas emissions in the EU-15 in 1995. The directive obliges Member States to reduce the amount of biodegradable waste that they landfill to 35% of 1995 levels by 2016 [EU Commission for the Environment, 2010]. Using waste to energy technology for landfill waste will not only fulfill the EU Landfill Directive and climate change objectives but also will have a major impact on municipal land-use management.
The Meath Plant will overcome several economic and technology barriers while boasting large environmental benefits that meet several of the EU Directives on the environment. The most interesting aspect from the power plant is the energy efficient technologies included in the facility; unique for waste to energy plants. Waste that cannot be recycled will be sent to the Meath facility for energy conversion. This waste will slowly be fed to a boiler and combusted. The heat generated will be transferred to water located in pipes in the boiler. At temperatures of around 850 C, the water is converted into high pressure steam that then drives steam turbines, then the generator and electricity is produced. The use of super-heaters and economizers in the boiler reuses heat from the boiler, thereby minimizing lost energy from the system. These energy saving devices come at a high cost and are usually left out of waste to energy power plants because of the added investment costs related to flue gas treatment from the incinerators; making the Meath plant of special interest.
Currently there are about 300 waste-energy plants throughout the EU with obvious potential for growth. The Meath facility is expected to produce enough electricity to power 20,000 homes and will process around 200,000 tonnes of waste annually. With a development cost of €130 million, it is the largest solid waste management infrastructure in Ireland and the most energy efficient in the EU [Indaver, 2010].
Sources:
[EU Commission for the Environment, 2010]
http://ec.europa.eu/environment/waste/compost/
[Indaver, 2010]
http://www.indaver.ie/Meath.1596.0.html?&L=0
