ATHENS 2017 5th International Conference on Sustainable Waste Management, June 23, 2017 The Perfect Time for Greece to join Modern MSW management Prof. Nickolas J. Themelis, Director Chair, Global WtERT Council (GWC)
Order of presentation 1. What is the Modern Way of managing municipal solid wastes (MSW) 2. Why it is the Perfect Time for Greece to join other developed nations: The landfill serving one half of Greece (Ano Liossia Phyli) is way past its useful life A nation blessed with world famous climate and land should not continue converting it to landfills Technology is now available at an affordable capital cost Outside investment is available and the return on investment will be very high
Recycling Waste Reduction Reuse & Recycling Anaerobic Digestion Aerobic Composting Source Separated Materials Postrecycling Energy Recovery (WTE) Modern Landfill Recovering & Using CH 4 Modern Landfill Recovering & Flaring CH 4 Landfills without CH 4 Capture Unsanitary Landfills & Open Burning Methods of managing MSW
Recycling WTE Ladder of sustainable waste management of nations China Landfilling Greece
Advantages of WTE over landfilling Destruction of pathogens Conservation of land, especially near cities Renewable electricity and thermal energy Reduction in GHG emission: Up to 1 ton CO2 per ton of MSW going to WTE Recovery of metals and minerals from WTE ash
Distance of WTE from the city center (km) 20.0 18.0 16.0 14.0 12.0 10.0 8.0 6.0 4.0 2.0 0.0 Columbia study: Average distance of global WTEs from city center: 5 km 0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500 4000 4500 5000 6 Total Plant Capacity (tons /day) Avg. distance: 5 km
U.S. dioxin emissions from all industrial sources, forest and landfill fires, flaring of LFG, etc., in grams TEQ 1987 1995 2000 2012 Total industrial sources Total industrial plus area sources WTE dioxins as % of total U.S. dioxins 13,833 2,634 998 511 16,125 4,925 3,827 3,808 58.9% 24.4% 2.0% 0.08% Dioxins from unintended landfill fires in the U.S. in 2012: 1,300 grams TEQ vs. 3 gramsteq from WTE
Columbia detailed studies of annual WTE dioxin emissions of four nations MSW processed (million tons) Average Dioxin Emissions (ng TEQ/Nm 3 ) Total Dioxins Emitted g TEQ/year Year of study USA 2012 25.9 0.027 2.90 France 2010 13.8 0.013 0.79 South Korea 2010 3.9 0.007 0.11 China 2015 61.8 0.1* 24.7 *Assumed national average: 2016 China Everbright average: 0.02 ng TEQ/Nm 3
Global landfilling continues at one billion tons each year Estimated average and final use of land for proper (sanitary) landfilling of MSW: One square meter used up forever, for every 10 tons of MSW landfilled Current global landfilling in one year converts 100 square kilometers of green fields to landfills If all post-recycling MSW were to be landfilled at one location, it would use up, each year, a land surface equal to metropolitan Paris
Reducing the capital investment in WTE plants has made them cost-competitive with sanitary landfills China has demonstrated that it is possible to reduce the capital cost of WTE plants by means of: Favorable national policy Industrial and academic R&D Rapid growth of industry (30 plants/year), instead of building one plant at the time Assembly line manufacturing of WTE equipment
21 st Century growth of WTE industry in China 200,00 180,00 160,00 140,00 2017 Capacity: 230,000 tons/day 2017 number of WTEs: 254 138 166 188 120,00 100,00 93 104 109 80,00 60,00 40,00 36 45 47 54 67 69 66 74 20,00 0,00 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 WTE treatment capacity(thousand tons/day) Plant number Yating Yu, EEC/Columbia University, 2016
Recent WTE plants built in China at a much lower CAPEX 2.000 Capital cost, $/ton MSW 1.800 1.600 1.400 1.200 1.000 800 600 400 Average of 25 EU/US plants: $880/ton Average of 21 China plants: $230/ton 200 0 0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1.000 WTE capacity, thousand tons MSW WTE capacity, thousand tons MSW/day
The Everbright Nanjing WTE (4,000 tons/day; total investment: $270 million)
Control room of Nanjing WTE plant
Continuous public display of WTE plant emissions
Everbright manufacturing plant of WTE equipment (Changzhou, China)
2015 and 2016 dioxin emissions of China Everbright plants (Columbia Univ. 2017 study, ng TEQ/Nm3 stack gas) E.U. and U.S. standard for dioxin emissions Plants we examined were well below the E.U. standard
The time has come for Greece to join other developed nations A one million ton WTE, to serve metropolitan Athens, will cost an estimated $400 million. The annual revenue will be $60 million from gate fees (now paid to the landfill) plus $45 million from electricity provided to the grid (500,000 MWh) There will be numerous economic and esthetic benefits to communities around the existing landfill
Outside investment is available and return on investment will be very high A perfect opportunity for a Private Public Partnership project Required partner: Major Greek company in construction and infrastructure The first and largest WTE in Greece will lead to smaller projects on islands and the mainland.
Sponsored by: GUIDEBOOK FOR THE APPLICATION OF WASTE TO ENERGY TECHNOLOGIES IN LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN NICKOLAS J. THEMELIS, MARIA ELENA DIAZ BARRIGA, PAULA ESTEVEZ, AND MARIA GAVIOTA VELASCO Columbia Guidebook is already available in English, Portuguese, Spanish, and Greek EARTH ENGINEERING CENTER COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY Chinese edition underway MARCH 2012 See Google WtE guidebook 1
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