Sembcorp opens S$34m 'energy from waste' plant

The Jakarta Post, Yunita Ong, Asia News Network/The Straits Times, Singapore, 04/25/2012

Sembcorp opened on Tuesday a S$34 million (US$27.29 million) plant in Sakra district on Jurong Island that will turn waste into energy.

The facility will process woodchips from the firm's solid waste management arm to output 20 ton of process steam an hour for use by other industries nearby, including multinational agribusiness Tate & Lyle.

The wood - gleaned from industrial, commercial, construction and demolition waste - would otherwise be incinerated.

The steam-producing process also cuts costs. Sembcorp has relied on natural gas from Indonesia to fuel its plants since 2001 but using woodchips instead would be 'significantly' less expensive, although the firm did not disclose the savings.

Ng Meng Poh, its executive vice-president for Singapore and ASEAN (Utilities), said Tuesday: “This solution provides an alternative economical source of energy for our customers on Jurong Island while leveraging synergies between our solid waste management and energy business.

“'It is also a step forward in our strategy to grow our portfolio of renewable energy assets and to offer sustainable and competitive energy-from-waste solutions to our customers on (Jurong Island).”

A range of other green facilities was also announced at Tuesday's opening ceremony.

Sembcorp will develop a second boiler at the plant to pump out 40 ton per hour of process steam. It will be completed later next year.

The two boilers, which will cost $64 million in total, will reduce carbon dioxide emissions by an estimated 70,000 ton a year compared with the typical Singapore steam-generating plant, which uses a mix of natural gas and other fuels.

Sembcorp also intends to supply its Sakra customers with one third of their steam demands using alternative fuel.

It aims to build two energy-from-waste boilers in Sakra to produce 140 ton of steam an hour by 2014. Its solid waste collection arm will provide the plant fuel.

In 2007, Sembcorp started burning woodchips, recycled wood and willows to fuel its $187 million power and steam station in Teeside in Britain. 

Indonesian Garbage Project Helps to Save the Climate

Jakarta Globe, Christiane Oelrich, January 01, 2012

A man perches on a makeshift raft on a river covered with trash as he
 searches for materials to recycle, north of Indonesia's capital, Jakarta
 in this file photo. Residents in Tangerang are taking trash collection into
their own hands. (Reuters Photo/Supri) 

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Tangerang. Crouched and concentrated, August and Karma rip open knotted plastic bags at the foot of a big pile of rubbish.

Yoghurt cups, paper packaging, plastic, pineapple rinds, cabbage leaves, chicken bones and the like fall out. The young Indonesian men begin sorting. Organic material goes to one side, and bottles, plastic and paper to the other.

“A super job,” remarks Karma, 23. “Finally, reliable work.” The two sort their rubbish and that of their neighbors, too. For the past year, the 325 families in Griya Serpong — a working class housing area of Tangerang, a city some 40 kilometers south-west of Jakarta — have been disposing of their garbage themselves.

Municipal garbage collection was never reliable, and the residents used to dump their refuse in a vacant field — a paradise for rats, flies, mosquitoes and snakes.

Everything is different now. The roofed garbage sorting facility is a source of local pride.

“It’s got a lot cleaner here,” notes Ulil Albab, the project’s honorary chairman.

“Nobody wanted to have anything to do with rubbish before. Now we bring school kids here and show them how to compost,” Karma says.

Residents built the facility with the help of BEST, a local non-governmental organization focusing on urban poverty and community development, and BORDA (Bremen Overseas Research and Development Association), a German non-profit organization that aims to improve the living conditions of disadvantaged communities and to keep the environment intact.

At a monthly cost per family of 12,000 Indonesian rupiahs, or a little over 1 dollar, August and Karma sweep through the alleyways of Griya Serpong with their moped and trailer every day collecting garbage — 400 kilograms of it.

They compost all organic refuse at the sorting facility. It is then sold along with the plastic, glass and paper.

Agathe, 35, has made a business out of rubbish. She collects discarded detergent and noodle bags. She and her girlfriends fashion colorful handbags and wallets from them.

When everything of value has been separated out of the housing area’s refuse, no more than 30 percent remains. It is taken to a tip.

BEST Director Hamzah Harun Al Rasyid is pleased. “It’s a win-win situation,” he says. “The housing area is cleaner, there are new jobs, and there is considerably less rubbish, so we’re reducing methane emissions from the garbage tips.”

Karma and August constantly turn over the compost pile, which aerates it. This helps prevent the formation of methane, a potent greenhouse gas that makes garbage tips a big contributor to global warming.

As Indonesia’s population grows rapidly, so do the piles of garbage that are produced by the country’s more than 240 million inhabitants.

While recycling is a booming industry — for example in Germany, where it generates some 67 billion dollars in revenues annually — almost all of the Indonesian garbage is incinerated or dumped in open tips.

About 1.8 million tons of garbage is likely to be produced daily worldwide by 2025, according to BORDA. In Indonesia, 62 percent of the refuse is organic and could be composted. But there is no large-scale sorting of refuse.

Facilities like the one in Griya Serpong are catching on. The twenty-first one is to be inaugurated in the near future, and many other communities are clamoring for their own.

“We estimate that each facility like this reduces methane by 132 tons a year,” said Jati Kusumowati, who works at the BORDA office in the city of Yogyakarta. “We think they ought to be promoted internationally as well.” One way to do this might be via the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) set out in the Kyoto Protocol on climate change, which allows industrialized countries to meet their emission--reduction or limitation commitments in part by paying for emission cuts in developing countries.

A one-ton reduction in methane would earn about 13 to 16 dollars, according to Kusumowati.

But small projects such as the one in Griya Serpong would not clear the technical and bureaucratic hurdles necessary for them to be officially recognized. BORDA is now trying to get the requirements for small projects loosened.

DPA

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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

Bekasi to get waste-fueled electricity in June

The Jakarta Post, Bekasi | Sun, 04/25/2010 7:19 PM

Bekasi Environmental Agency in West Java says it is confident it can produce up to 2 megawatts of electricity from waste at the Bantargebang waste management facility (TPA).

Agency chief Dudy Setiabudhi told tempointeraktif.com on Sunday that his team had not had any difficulties in the construction of the waste-fueled power plant.

“We’re ready to start producing power,” he said.

Dudy said his team was installing pipes to channel methane gas from waste wells to the generator.

Jakarta to Begin Turning Garbage Into Electricity at Bantar Gebang Next Month

Jakarta Globe, Arientha Primanita, February 11, 2010

A scavenger wading through a sea of rubbish in search of recyclables at the 125-hectare Bantar Gebang garbage dump. (JG Photo/Yudhi Sukma Wijaya)

The Bantar Gebang integrated waste-treatment facility in Bekasi is scheduled to begin testing its electricity generating capacity next month, the Jakarta Sanitation Agency said on Thursday.

Eko Baruna Subroto, the agency’s head, said in a panel discussion about the capital’s waste and flood problems that the facility would start by generating two megawatts of electricity from the methane released by the waste on March 8.

“The two megawatts of power produced from the waste treatment facility will be the first part of the total targeted production of 26 megawatts,” he said.

Eko said the facility, the first of its kind in the country, would begin generating its 26 MW capacity next year.

The March 8 trial launch will be attended by Jakarta Governor Fauzi Bowo, Bekasi Mayor Mochtar Mohammad and Minister for Public Works Djoko Kirmanto, among other officials.

Fauzi and Mochtar last year signed an agreement for Jakarta to use the Bantar Gebang landfill site for the next 20 years. In return, Bekasi would receive a site-usage fee of Rp 103,000 ($11) per ton of garbage from the Jakarta administration.

Two private companies, PT Godang Tua Jaya and PT Navigat Organik Energi Indonesia, manage the Bantar Gebang dump.

Bantar Gebang uses gasification technology and landfill and aerobic digestion waste management. The technology produces material for composting and harvests the expended gas for the biomethane electricity-generating system.

Eko said about 70 percent of Jakarta’s 6,500 tons of daily garbage were taken to Bantar Gebang landfill, with the rest going to the Sunter dump.

He said he hoped the garbage processed at Bantar Gebang would fall to 3,000 tons a day by 2012 and 2,000 tons a day by 2023.

New dump sites in Ciangir, Tangerang, and Marunda, North Jakarta, are planned to absorb some of the excess from Bantar Gebang.

Eko said an agreement between Jakarta and Tangerang finalizing the Ciangir site would be signed next month, with a tender process for its management begun soon after.

Eko said on Thursday that the Ciangir dump would be opened in early 2011, despite reports that the site would begin operations in the middle of this year.

The Marunda site will also be managed privately, with an initial investment of Rp 600 billion. It is planned to be opened by 2012.

The site is located on 12 hectares in the Special Economic Zone in Marunda, and the facility there will use technology similar to Bantar Gebang’s.

Muhammad Sanusi, a city councilor from Commission D, which oversees development, said the council supported the new waste-treatment facilities to help handle the capital’s ever-increasing waste problems.

He said he especially supported the Marunda site because it would be the first to be wholly owned by the city.

“With independent management, the city can implement and decide on the technology needed to handle the waste problems,” Sanusi said.

Energy Plant Plans For Bekasi

The Jakarta Globe,  Nivell Rayda, March 10, 2009 

The Bekasi municipality and two private companies began construction of a waste-to-energy, or WTE, power plant at the Bantar Gebang dump site on Tuesday to convert 5,000 tons of solid waste from Jakarta and surrounding areas into 12 megawatts of electricity per day by June 2010. 

With a total investment of $82 million, the plant, Indonesia’s second waste-to-energy power project, would be managed jointly by PT Navigat Organic Energy Indonesia, PT Manunggal Energy Group and the Bekasi municipality. It is still unclear how the Rp 80 billion ($6.72 million) of expected annual profit would be divided. 

Almost one year ago, the Bandung municipality in West Java Province started building its WTE plant in Gedebage subdistrict, the city’s landfill area. The Bandung plant would be operational by the end of this year. 

The Bantar Gebang facility would operate roughly in the same way as conventional, fossil fuel-powered plants. Solid waste is incinerated and the heat generated turns water into steam to drive a turbine connected to an electricity generator. 

Although the WTE plant would be capable of reducing the waste volume by up to 90 percent, the technology is not without its critics. In the US, the Environmental Protection Agency, or EPA, limits the use of WTE plants to only 17 percent of waste treatment. The agency found that incinerating the unpredictable materials of the waste, which may include materials made from fossil fuel or other toxic chemicals, can emit fumes which are hazardous to health. 

The agency requires all WTE plants in the US to separate toxic metals such as lead, cadmium and mercury and chemicals such as dioxins and furans from the waste used to produce energy. 

Both in Bandung and Bantar Gebang, nearby residents have rejected the plan, fearing that the plants would damage the environment. With the cities’ bad track records in managing waste, residents are skeptical that the plants’ operators would be able to isolate the toxic waste. 

Yattie Setiati, a researcher from the Indonesian Institute of Sciences, or LIPI, the institution which assesses the environmental impact of the plants, said the government has anticipated the health and environmental damages which may arise. 

“The WTE plants are equipped with filters that keep the emissions at safe levels,” Yattie said. “All the dioxins are captured by water, while dust particles and mercuries are absorbed by calcium dioxides and carbons.” 

Yattie also said the fumes and smell would not disturb the surrounding area. “Each of the plant’s surrounding seven hectares will be planted with trees, creating a green belt to contain the pollutants,” she said. 

“People are afraid because the government has not done a good job in providing this information.”

Russians to build biomass power plant

Andi Hajramurni, The Jakarta Post, Makassar | Mon, 11/10/2008 11:15 AM  

The South Sulawesi provincial administration in cooperation with a Russian company JSC PromSviaz Automatika will build a biomass powerplant in South Sulawesi expected to produce between 20 to 100 MW of electricity. 

JSC PromSviaz Automatika's general director Vladimir Khusainov said the powerplant would use rice rice husks and straw as fuel. 

Khusainov, who met South Sulawesi Governor Syahrul Yasin Limpo here, said his company was interested to invest in the power sector in South Sulawesi as the province had good potential to provide a high volume of rice husks and straw. 

"We observe the quantity of straw and husks in South Sulawesi is abundant and of good quality," he said. 

"So there is good potential for this waste to be used as power plant fuel." 

Khusainov also said that the biomass powerplant would be cheaper to run than powerplants using other fuels such as coal or diesel. 

"Biomass is environmentally friendly because it uses waste materials as fuel," he said. 

"The ash from burning husks and straw can even be sold to the cement and crude oil industries." 

The Russian firm will cooperate with South Sulawesi Provincial Enterprise. 

The provincial enterprise director, Harris Hody, said electricity from a biomass powerplant would be more competitive as the fuel was cheaper. 

The enterprise would also cooperate with Tiara Energy and a Russian consultant, Bantry Corporation, to conduct feasibility studies to determine how much rice husk and rice straw would be needed and where the powerplant would be built. 

Khusainov disclosed that 1 million tons of rice husks could produce 100 MW of electricity, while 5 million tons of rice straw could produce 400 MW. 

"We will decide the powerplant capacity after we conduct the feasibility study," he said. 

"But it will be somewhere between 20 and 100 MW." 

Governor Syahrul hoped that the project could soon be built to help the province overcome the power crisis. There is a deficit of 50 to 80 MW with some 60,000 would-be customers queueing to get electricity. 

"There is no need to conduct research because the provincial agricultural services and other agencies have conducted such research. Just ask them for the results," he said. 

"We will prioritize the project because it also benefits the farmers in addition to generating electricity." 

Syahrul also guaranteed a steady supply of rice husks and rice straw as the province produces five to six million tons of rice every year. 

In response to Syahrul's request, Khusainov promised to speed up the feasibility study from nine to six months and construct the powerplant soon so it could become operational next year. 

Although supporting the projet, however, Syahrul had yet to sign a MoU, saying he would study its contents. 

The governor also said that the form of cooperation between the Russian firm and the South Sulawesi enterprise and its profit-sharing scheme was not yet clear. 

Meanwhile, President of Bantry Corporation, Vasily Tsarev, said the company was also constructing a number of biomass powerplants on Java Island and in North Sumatra province. 

JSC PromSviaz Automatika and the Serdang Bedagai regency administration signed an MoU in October to build a 10 MW powerplant, which can be increased to 20 MW.

Waste-based power plant project to go ahead despite protest

Yuli Tri Suwarni, The Jakarta Post, Bandung | Sat, 03/29/2008 11:12 AM

The Bandung municipal administration will go ahead with its plan to build a waste-based power generation plant despite strong opposition by local residents and the absence of an environment impact analysis.

A soft launch for the construction of the plant was held Monday in conjunction with the commemoration of the 62nd Bandung Lautan Api Day in Bandung.

Ignoring the protest and the unavailability of analysis from the Bandung office of the environmental management agency, Bandung Mayor Dada Rosada said he was optimistic construction of the project would run as expected.

"Now the launch for the project is being held, but its implementation still awaits the issuance of the permit," Dada said.

State Minister for Research and Technology Kusmayanto Kadiman, who attended the launch ceremony, said he supported the project.

Kusmayanto said his office's support was dependent on the use of proper technology designed to reduce the level of pollution.

"We are not the operator ... the one in charge of the project is the municipal administration. Our duty is just giving a proposal on the most appropriate technology," Kadiman said.

The launch ceremony was held seven kilometers from the site for the project.

The event was protested by residents fearful the plant will worsen air pollution in the city through carbon dioxide emissions.

The technology suggested for the power generation, Kadiman said, would be able to maximize usage but minimize risks.

He cited as an example the burning of plastic waste, which has the risk of releasing poisonous substances into the environment.

Active dissemination on how to reduce waste through the application of three Rs -- reuse, reduce and recycle -- should also be pursued, he said.

The power plant project, designed to process about 100 tons of household waste per day, will likely be built by the municipal administration together with the construction of a 60,000-seat sports stadium.

The two projects are estimated to cost about Rp 350 billion (US$38.80 million) each, with the funding to come from both the municipal and provincial budgets.

Transforming waste into energy at Suwung Garbage dump

Prodita Sabarini, The Jakarta Post, Denpasar

The foul smell of piling garbage at the largest landfill in Bali, the Suwung landfill, has been a source of disgust for the Balinese.

Thanks to technology, however, people on the island-province can now look forward to making use of their waste.

Home to household waste from four areas of Bali - Denpasar, Badung, Gianyar and Tabanan - the landfill receives as much as 800 tons of waste per day.

As two third of the waste is organic, it releases methane gas -- the source of the "foul smell" and is one of the greenhouse gasses that contributes to global warming - to the atmosphere.

The Bali administration, working with PT Navigat Organic Energy Indonesia (NOEI), set up an integrated waste management system at Suwung by building its first biogas plant.

The plant would capture methane gasses and turn it into energy in the form of electricity. The plant will also help rehabilitate the landfill site.

"By August 2008 the facility would be able to produce two megawatts for public use," PT NOEI spokesperson Bernt Bakken said Sunday.

The facility was launched by the Bali Governor Made Dewa Beratha on Dec. 13, sporting the momentum of the United Nations Climate Change Conference that ended on Dec. 15.

It is the first project in Bali carried out under the United Nation's Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) -- a carbon trade scheme that enables a group of developed countries and countries in transition, which are binding for emission cuts to earn emission reduction credits by promoting sustainable development in developing countries.

Indonesia has 11 projects under the carbon trade scheme registered at the CDM executive board so far, with only two of them approved by the board.

The biogas plant project would reduce around 123,423 tons per year of the amount of methane gasses released to the atmosphere, cutting the greenhouse gasses that contribute to global warming.

Bakken said from 2010, the facility would produce 10 Megawatts of electricity.

State Electricity Company (PLN) has signed an agreement to buy power from the biogas plant.

PT NOEI uses a Jenbacher machine, distributed by GE Energy. GE Energy country executive Gatot Prawiro said waste-to-energy conversion was a good solution to provide energy in areas that has no access to the national power grid.

Bali is still dependent on Java for power supply, with 130 Megawatts of the 439 Megawatts needed to power Bali comes from the Paiton Power Plant in East Java.

Foreign firms eye RI greenhouse projects

Adianto P. Simamora, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Many foreign investors are considering becoming involved in developing greenhouse gas emission reduction projects here in Indonesia as a result of the country's huge potential, an official says.

Prasetyadi Utomo, the secretary to Indonesia's Designated National Authority (DNA), a unit of the State Ministry for the Environment, predicts that there will be at least 10 projects under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) submitted by local companies for approval by the government this year.

Under the Kyoto Protocol, which Indonesia has ratified, gas emission reduction projects have to be approved by the United Nations. Project developers are entitled to receive certified emission reductions (CER) from the UN, which can later be used by developed nations to meet their Kyoto protocol targets for reducing gas emissions.

A CER unit stating a one-ton reduction in carbon dioxide is estimated to be worth between US$7 and $8.

"We are in the final stages of approving four CDM projects," Prasetyadi Utomo, the secretary of Indonesia's Designated National Authority (DNA) on CDM at the state ministry told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

The DNA, which was set up in 2005, is tasked with approving such projects before submitting them to the UN's Executive Board.

The four projects consist of a mini-hydro scheme, the use of coconut shells to generate electricity, limiting the use of nitrous oxide in the manufacturing of explosives, and methane extraction during tapioca-starch production.

Prasetyadi said that the mini-hydro project consisted of four small-scale power generating plants in Central Java and West Java, and would be developed by PT Indonesia Power in partnership with Japan-based Chugoku Electric Power Co. Inc.

"The project is expected to generate up to 21,139 tons of carbon reductions per year," Prasetyadi explained.

He said that so far, eight Indonesian CDM projects had been registered with the UN Executive Board. The eight projects could produce emission reductions of up to 1.5 million tons per year.

"Many of the project promoters are from Japan. We hope that more investors from the European nations will locate CDM projects in Indonesia this year," he said.

A statement from the British Embassy in Jakarta said that a delegation of 12 British investors would meet Indonesian CDM project developers during a two-day visit starting Thursday.

"The range of services available from the UK climate change companies is extensive and includes CDM project development and financing, carbon fund management, technology provision, carbon brokerage services, validation and verification, and legal services," the statement said.

The Kyoto Protocol requires developed nations to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 8 percent below 1990 levels in the period between 2008 and 2012.

By contrast, developing countries can host projects to reduce the gases. Indonesia, which ratified the protocol, is not required to reduce its emissions and thus is a potential host country.

The state ministry said that Indonesia had the potential to supply two percent of the global CDM market, or the equivalent of a 125-million-ton reduction in carbon dioxide.

It said that the energy and industrial sectors produced the largest share -- up to 60 percent -- of total emissions in Indonesia.

Fossil and coal-based fuels are believed to be the main causes of greenhouse gas emissions that lead to global climate change.

Electricity Project Hoping for Funds from UN

Monday, 15 January, 2007 | 16:54 WIB

TEMPO Interactive, Denpasar: A garbage-powered electricity generating plant project that is being built in Denpasar is hoping for funds from Clean Development Management of the United Nations.

“The project helps reducing poisonous gas emitions which is in line with the mission of the institution,” said Made Sudharma, Head of the Garbage and Sanitation Supervisory Agency of Denpasar, Badung, Gianyar and Tabanan, yesterday (01/14).

According to Made, development started one year ago by joining together with British company PT Navigate Organic Energy Indonesia.

The task of the company is to organize the areas of garbage disposal in Suwung, the location of the project.

Made explained that there were some models of garbage management that may produce energy such as sanitary landfill technique—a land management that is equipped with special installation—and anaerobic digestion or decomposition using microorganism for new garbage.

New dry garbage such as plastic, glass, iron, and building ruins, he said, require high temperature non-oxygen warming.

The biogas, which is a byproduct of the process, will be utilizes to activate the turbine.

With an anticipated 1,500 cubic meters of garbage per day, electricity production could be between five and eight megawatts.

Rofiqi Hasan