Vietnamese Updates: Hanoi: Turning waste into electricity (20 Feb 2013)

Hanoi: Turning waste into electricity 

Thứ tư, ngày 20 tháng 02 năm 2013 cập nhật lúc 03:05

Presently in Vietnam, how to effectively handle waste resources and turn them into energy for human benefit is a matter of great concern at all levels, departments and to all the people. If this issue can be handled well, it will not only resolve the problem of environmental pollution, increase the land resources, but also contribute to solving the energy puzzle.

Consequently, Hanoi People’s Committee has recently approved to implement the Waste-to-electricity Project in Nam Son, Soc Son. When the project is completed, waste will be processed into domestic electrical energy with a capacity of less than 3MW. The goal of the project is to provide electricity only for internal use, not for business. This is the first project to build power plants turning waste into electricity in Vietnam and Southeast Asia. The project was funded with the financial assistance of NEDO-Japan, through the Green Aid program by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment of Vietnam. The project consumes a total investment of $ 29.2 million, of which the Japanese funded $ 22.5 million.

In order to turn the waste and garbage in Nam Son landfill site into electricity, the plant will use advanced waste combustion technology, which recovers energy for power production. This is one of Japan's advanced technologies to radically treat industrial waste, develop alternative energy and reduce greenhouse emissions. Some kinds of garbage that can be comprehensively processed at the plant include: rubber, leather, plastic and fabric; paper pulp, medical waste, decomposed waste... and even the waste that requires high calorific value and larger form with dioxin content ensuring Vietnam’s standards.

It is expected that in 2014, the plant will be put into operation with industrial waste incinerator capacity being 75 tons / day. Moreover, the plant will retrieve energy from waste for power generation with a capacity of 1.930kW, contributing to enhancing the industrial wastes treatment capacity of Hanoi city and constructing typical industrial waste treatment models which will be duplicated in other provinces and cities throughout the country.

Hanoi People's Committee has agreed to fund the plant 100% from the city budget to ensure the implementation of synchronous auxiliary items and the requirements of the progress of the project before it is approved. In addition, the People’s Committee also requires the investor to specify the efficiency of the resources and other conditions of the project, such as reducing landfill area, saving land resources, reducing the risk of polluting emissions of hazardous waste, experimenting applications of advanced technology transferred by the Japanese... and to propose policies on electricity price support to estimate the economic efficiency of the project. As soon as the projected has been completed, major concerns about waste problem will be fundamentally solved.

Mai Chi

For more information: 

http://www.monre.gov.vn/v35/default.aspx?tabid=675&CateID=58&ID=125331&Code=0IUI125331