Japanese company turns waste from landfill into electricity

Antara News, Mon, April 18 2011

Palembang, South Sumatra (ANTARA News) - A Japanese company has succeeded in using waste at the Sukawinatan landfill in Palembang to produce electricity for lighting since late 2010, a company spokesman said.

Hendri, a technical officer of PT Gikoko Japan Indonesia, said here Monday the company had since October 2010, succeeded in producing electricity from waste treatment wells at the Sukawinatan landfill .

"Waste from five wells and ten horizontal waste reservoirs has been processed into electricity," Hendri said.

He said Gikoko had teamed up with the Palembang city administration for waste processing so as to capture methane gas and build electrical installation.

"Since late last year, we have been e to process materials from waste wells into electric power produced by the system itself, Hendri said.

He added, currently Sukawinatan ​​landfill provides electricity amounting to 120 thousand watts to illuminate the waste disposal location.

The electric lights for 24 hours, but it can only serve a limited landfill area and have not been able to light the off-site of the waste disposal location, he said.

We still lack of waste wells, so it is a constraint to develop the electric energy at the landfill, Hendri said.

He explained, ideally it takes about 40 wells waste more to develop electrical energy.

But until now, only five waste wells that have been optimally exploited .

Meanwhile, head of Palembang city sanitation office, Zulfikri Simin expected that PT Gikoko could accelerate the waste treatment efforts so that it would have economic values.

The volume of waste dumped in Sukawinatan landfill every day reaches more than 2,500 cubic meters.

Editor: Priyambodo RH