Waste to Energy plans extinguished in Dubai
Plans for a 2,000 – 3,000 tonne per day waste to energy facility in Dubai that were unsuccessfully tendered three times have now reportedly been cancelled.
Financing issues and a project scope that was “too open” were said to be the challenges halting the project for the Dubai Municipality, according to a report by Middle East Business Intelligence (MEED).
Two bids were submitted in November of last year with Japan’s Hitachi Lenovo touted as favourite. A proposal was put forward for three incinerators constructed at Al-Warsan, each with a 50MW capacity under a 20-year contract.
MEED quoted sources as saying that the municipality was keen to accept the power price of 26 fils a kilowatt hour, but not the proposed gate fee.
Abdulmajeed Abdulaziz Saifaie, the director of Dubai Municipality’s Waste Management Department reportedly said that Dubai is completing its waste management masterplan for the United Arab Emirates (UAE) emirate until 2030.
Earlier this year the UAE brought forward its policy to ban all disposal plastic products except those made from oxo-biodegradable plastic(see Waste Management World story).
A most interesting discussion.
If the UAE is interested then the best option available is to treat the waste through a Waste to Ethanol facility such as those that are being developed in the UK and Malta and Holland under the systems being developed there. These systems take the whole waste stream, recapture all of the recyclables as everyone does and then converts the residual waste and biomass to the renewable fuel which could be Ethanol (as stated above) or Butanol and Ethanol. The advantage of this system is that the Gate Fees for treatment can be minimised to less than €30-00 per tonne in the initial five year period and then removed altogether thereafter.
As I read the details that was declined by Dubai, a programme built using this analogy (Waste to Ethanol) would cost around UAE Dirham 1150 Million (or say less than €250 Million) and produce around 190 Million litres of Ethanol (Fuel) per year which has a sales potential in China that would make the project very viable for the UAE and Dubai.
I am absolutely astounded therefore that there is any consideration in the UAE that the notion of incineration of waste was ever contemplated.
Look again UAE and contact the British Company (www.genesystuk.com, and contact their Managing Director (not sure if I have got this right from reading their web site, peter@genesystuk.com) or go directly to the Genesyst web site and make contact through the same person listed in Genesyst operating out of the UK. They give a name of the person in charge for that company. They are currently working on a number of developments here.