Datong City in Shanxi Province, a major coal-producing region in mainland China, has developed a new power source for generating electricity by treating waste in a special way, which can replace coal. It is estimated that the annual power generation will be about 200 million kilowatt-hours, providing daily electricity for more than 300,000 residents of Datong City for a year.
According to Xinhua News Agency, Datong, Shanxi, known as the "Coal Capital of China," is one of the largest thermal coal bases in mainland China. However, after years of mining, its coal resources are nearing depletion. Therefore, Shanxi has begun to promote "waste-to-energy" in recent years.
Waste-to-energy can save land resources, eliminate land, water and air pollution caused by landfilling, achieve harmlessness, waste reduction and resource utilization, and promote the sustainable development of the environment and economy.
China's waste is typically characterized by its high moisture content, low calorific value, large amount of residue, and lack of separation and refining. To address this, China-Germany Environmental Protection Co., Ltd., responsible for the project's establishment, designed incineration power generation equipment tailored to the specific characteristics of Chinese waste.
It is understood that by deepening the furnace, the temperature during garbage incineration is kept at no less than 850 degrees Celsius, and the flue gas stays in the high-temperature layer for more than 3 seconds. Through repeated tumbling on the grate, the garbage and straw can be fully mixed and burned.
Furthermore, activated carbon fiber felt and bag filters can effectively remove dust and residual dioxins from flue gas. According to monitoring by the Monitoring and Analysis Center of the Ministry of Environmental Protection of China, the dioxin emission in Datong City was 0.034 ng, lower than the environmental standards stipulated by China and better than the EU standards.
Zhang Jiangong, chairman of Datong Fuqiao Waste Incineration Power Generation Company, said that in addition to generating 200 million kilowatt-hours of electricity annually, the ash produced from waste incineration can be made into about 80 million bricks.
The power plant is equipped with an ash brick-making plant. The ash residue after waste incineration can be processed into building materials such as park paving bricks, grass pavers, and shaped bricks.
The plant has a wastewater treatment center where wastewater is treated and then recycled. Leachate from the landfill is pumped into the waste incinerator and incinerated. A small portion of the metals that cannot be burned are also recycled.
By using fully enclosed conveying equipment and a ventilation and dust removal system, noise inside the plant is isolated, and the odor from the garbage is also drawn into the garbage incinerator for combustion, thus initially achieving the design goal of harmless, resource-based, and thorough treatment of domestic waste.
It is estimated that the heat energy generated by incinerating 5 tons of garbage is equivalent to that of 1 ton of coal. If China could utilize garbage incineration, it could save more than 36 million tons of coal annually. This would not only significantly reduce potential safety accidents caused by coal mining but also reduce carbon dioxide emissions by approximately 94 million tons, thus mitigating global warming.
–Source: Central News Agency
