Displaying items by tag: Refuse Derived Fuel

India: The city of Tiruchirappalli (Trichy) in Tamil Nadu has entered an agreement with a cement manufacturing unit in Ariyalur to use the city’s non-recyclable plastic materials as refuse-derived fuel (RDF) to power the plant’s kilns. This initiative aims to divert substantial amounts of plastic from the Ariyamangalam dump, starting with 300t/month and increasing over time, with hopes to collaborate with more cement plants, according to the Times of India. The city generates approximately 480t/day of non-recyclable materials, with plans to eventually prevent landfill use completely.

A Trichy official said “A cement manufacturer in Ariyalur has agreed to accept 6 - 8t/day of inert plastic ‘waste’, which will be transported to the plant in a corporation truck. It will be utilised to power the kilns as a substitute for fossil fuel.”

US: The Continental Cement Davenport plant in Buffalo, Iowa, has celebrated the expansion of its facility, which now enables the reuse of post-consumer materials. This initiative will substitute approximately 50,000t/yr of fossil fuels with discarded materials that would otherwise be incinerated or sent to landfill.

India: Thiruvananthapuram city Corporation has conducted a trial run of its refuse-derived fuel (RDF) plant at Sanmathi Park, Chala. The plant processes up to 1t/day of legacy waste, which is hard to segregate, to produce fuel for cement plants. The plant processes 40kg of materials per 15-minute cycle. Currently, non-recyclable materials are sent to Tamil Nadu cement plants. The government plans to establish at least one RDF plant per district as a permanent solution.

Oman: Oman's solid waste management entity, Be'ah, has reported progress in its strategy to transition solid waste from landfill disposal to refuse derived fuel (RDF), according to Oman Daily Observer.

In 2023, Be'ah launched initiatives focusing on transforming waste into RDF, electrical and electronic waste and green waste. The company has signed an agreement with Oman Cement Company to provide tyre derived fuel for its energy needs, eventually expanding to include RDF. A memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed with Oman Cement during Oman Sustainability Week to explore the utilisation of RDF as an additional alternative fuel source, according to the company’s 2023 sustainability report.

Chair of Be’ah, Ahmed al Subhi, said "We take pride in our strategic resource management initiatives, having set ambitious targets for transitioning to a circular economy, including achieving 60% waste utilisation by 2025 and 80% by 2030.”

India: The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation has decided to continue its partnership with Dalmia Cement, allowing the company to receive an additional 70,000t of refuse derived fuel (RDF) from a temporary transit station at Gadakana. This decision comes as part of ongoing efforts to manage the substantial amount of RDF generated from daily waste processing, according to the New Indian Express.

An official from the civic body said "As the waste-handling site receives around 450t/day of garbage, we have agreed to allow Dalmia to take another 70,000t of waste. Previously, we had signed a contract with the company to send 70,000t of RDF to its Rajgangpur factory for co-processing within nine months. In the last six months, around 50,000t of waste has been sent."

India: The Jaipur Heritage Municipal Corporation has successfully converted around 6000kg of seized single-use plastic into a revenue-generating resource by selling it to cement plants. The plastic was collected over the past three to four months from local markets as part of an anti-plastic campaign, according to the Press Trust of India.

Commissioner Abhishek Surana said "Disposal of the seized single-use plastic was a major issue. We assessed that a supply chain exists in the system and installed refuse derived fuel machines at dumping yards to shred the plastic and sell it to cement manufacturing plants. It has also started generating revenue for the corporation."

Spain: The Cemex plant in Alcanar has been granted €3m from the PERTE project for industrial decarbonisation, facilitated by the Ministry of Industry. This subsidy is part of a broader initiative involving 19 projects with a total aid of €96m under Line 1 of the programme. Cemex aims to contribute to decarbonisation of the clinker production process at its Alcanar facility by centralising compressed air production to enhance energy efficiency, replacing 14 old compressors with two more powerful and efficient units. The plant also plans to increase the use of alternative fuels in clinker production by integrating waste-derived and biomass fuels.

Australia: Veolia ANZ and ResourceCo have secured a contract to supply over 1Mt of refuse derived fuel (RDF) from their Adelaide facility to Adbri Cement's Birkenhead plant, aiming to replace natural gas and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. According to Veolia, around 1.5Mt of waste will be diverted from landfill during the course of the contract.

Brett Brown, chief operating officer at Adbri, said "Adbri has pioneered the use of RDF in Australia. Cement manufacturing is energy intensive, and the use of alternative fuels is one of the levers we are using to reduce our emissions as part of our goal of net zero by 2050."

Indonesia: The Jakarta administration has commenced the construction of the Rorotan refuse derived fuel (RDF) plant on a 7.8-hectare site in North Jakarta, aiming to process 2,500t/day of waste. The US$75m project is funded from the 2024 regional budget and is expected to be completed by December 2024 and start operations in early 2025. The city of Jakarta produces nearly 8,000t/day of waste, the majority of which goes to the Bantar Gebang landfill in West Java. The facility will convert 35-40% of the waste processed into about 875t/day of alternative fuels.

The Rorotan facility is the second RDF plant initiated by the Jakarta administration, following the Bantar Gebang facility, which began operations in 2023. This new facility marks a shift from the planned waste-to-energy incinerator in Sunter, which was cancelled due to high costs and bureaucratic delays.

Acting Jakarta governor Heru Budi Hartono said "This technology is still a very small part of our larger efforts to address the city's waste problem."

Head of the Jakarta Environment Agency Asep Kuswanto said "The RDF can become another source of revenue for the city, as we can sell the alternative fuel from the facility to industry."

Colombia: Cementos Argos and Sistema Verde have collaborated to transform nearly 27t of waste from the Estéreo Picnic music festival in Bogotá on 21 – 24 March 2024 into alternative fuel for Cementos Argos' Cartagena plant. The initiative, which includes converting materials such as plastics and cardboard into fuel, aligns with Cementos Argos’ aim to reduce fossil fuel use and CO₂ emissions per tonne of cement by 29% by 2030.

Mauricio Giraldo, director of alternative resources at Cementos Argos said "We are very pleased to be part of this alliance with which we join the global need to join efforts to make an adequate use of waste in a safe, controlled and clean manner. Our goal as a company is to dispose of more than 300,000t/yr of waste, and with actions like this, we continue to contribute to achieving this goal.”