Palembang set to process waste to fix power crisis

Khairul Saleh, THE JAKARTA POST, PALEMBANG | Sat, 01/17/2009 5:24 PM  

The Palembang municipality in South Sumatra is planning to build a garbage-based power generating station in an effort to address waste management issues as well as the chronic power crisis in the city, a senior official said recently. 

The assistant to the City Secretary on planning and economic affairs, Apriadi S. Busri, said the project expected to address power shortages in Palembang. 

He said the station would be located at major landfill dumping sites in Kramasan, Kertapati, or Sukawinatan in Sukarami district, as the project required such huge volumes of garbage to operate. 

"Waste management will apply three methods reuse, reduce and recycle by sorting organic and nonorganic waste," he said. 

Besides processing garbage into fertilizer and methane gas to feed the power plant, the planned landfill areas have been set aside as future recreation areas, provided the recycling and sanitation processes operate smoothly. 

"A special drainage system will be built at the Kramasan landfill so that garbage can be deposited underground and processed into methane to then generate electricity," said Apriadi. 

The central government has provided Rp 5 billion (US$453,000) in funding for the project and also for a waste water processing plant. 

The municipality has appointed Japanese consortium PT Gikoko Kogyo Indonesia to produce methane at the Sukawinatan landfill. 

"We have signed a working contract with PT Gikoko. They are now waiting for their equipment to arrive so production can begin," said Apriadi. 

Palembang City Sanitation Agency head Zulfikri Simin said power generation from waste was feasible, provided there was a minimum supply of 500 tons of garbage per day, the equivalent of generating 2 megawatts of power. 

However, the municipality has been hampered by the limited number of garbage trucks in the area and the lack of overall transportation capacity. Sanitary workers can only transport between 3,000 and 5,000 cubic meters of garbage to the Sukawitan and Karya Jaya landfills per day. 

Zulfikri said PT Gikoko had been somewhat slow in beginning the process of converting waste to methane gas, considering operations were supposed to have started at the end of last year. 

The company is currently carrying out excavation work at landfills, collecting waste which will then be processed into methane.