Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Learn mandarin - Landfill gas to generate electricity

BIZCHINA / Center

Landfill gas to generate electricity

By Xiao Xin (China Daily)
Updated: 2007-07-06 09:46

The World Bank has signed its first greenhouse gas reduction agreement in
China to develop a landfill gas project.

The Shuangkou landfill gas project, located in Tianjin, will recover gas
from the Shuangkou landfill and use it for electricity generation.

Reductions achieved in greenhouse gas emissions will also be sold to the
Spanish Carbon Fund under the global mechanism for trade in carbon
credits.

Project developer Tianjin Clean Energy and Environmental Engineering
Company Ltd (TCEE) will collect landfill gas, half of which is expected
to be methane that has 21 times the global warming potential of carbon
dioxide (CO2). The rest will be CO2 and other gases.

It will produce power by installing a landfill gas collection system,
electricity generation equipment and a gas flaring system on the site.

Related readings:
Beijing keen on China IV standard Action plan aims to cut gas emissions
Oil firms line up clean fuel for Games Nation targets 3 areas to cut
energy use

Under its agreement signed with the World Bank, TCEE will then sell
635,000 tons of CO2 equivalent greenhouse gas emission reductions to the
Spanish Carbon Fund managed by the bank.

"Tianjin is the first landfill gas project the bank has undertaken in
China and is a prototype of what could be," said Greg Browder, senior
environmental engineer and task leader of the project.

There are 87 cities in China with a population of 1 million residents or
more that produce large amounts of greenhouse gases.

"The residents of these and other large cities discard significant
quantities of waste that will emit methane in a disposal site. The
potential for landfill gas projects like Tianjin is enormous," he said.

The landfill gas project is expected to start by early 2008. Gas will be
collected in pipes from a series of wells that tap into waste disposal
sites.

The collected gas will be then transported in pipes to a central facility
where it will be burned to produce electricity for sale to the North
China Power Grid.

"As a renewable energy project, the Tianjin project will provide
societal, economic and environmental benefits and result in a positive
impact on the global climate," said a TCEE official who declined to be
named.

"With its approval in China and with the emission reductions purchase
agreement signed, the project is now on its way to being registered as a
Clean Development Mechanism project."

Landfill gas is the fourth-largest contributor to non-CO2 greenhouse gas
emissions.

The Shuangkou landfill was the first modern sanitary landfill in the
North China city.

(For more biz stories, please visit Industry Updates)

Learn Chinese, Learn mandarin

No comments: