General description

Need for Project

Waste in Donetsk, as in most cities in Ukraine is almost exclusively destined to end up on landfills. This method of handling final handling of waste has been determined, by among others, Ukrainian experts and authorities, to be an obsolete method, which has several negative consequences to the environment, apart from occupying large areas of land that could be used for other productive activities.
Waste handling is nowadays typically categorized in four main activities, called the 4 Rs, namely, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Recover. The fifth and seldom mentioned, but mostly used handling method is Deposit (on landfills). In Ukraine over 90% of all Municipal Household Solid Waste (MSW) is deposited on landfills. This way of handling waste is detrimental to the environment and the main consequences are:

• Contamination of ground water due to leakage of hazardous liquids into the ground below the landfill
• Generation of methane gases into the atmosphere from the process of waste decay. Methane is no less than 23 times more hazardous to the environment than CO2, by most specialist considered as the reason for the global warming
• Emission of uncontrolled amounts of dioxins into the atmosphere due to the numerous (if not constant) spontaneous fires on landfills during primarily the spring, summer and fall seasons, i.e. most of the year

Reducing the amount of waste produced by the population (and industry) is of course the primary goal. However, it has been proven that with economic development, reduction of waste is nearly impossible, not to say impossible and actually the opposite.
Reusing the waste is possible in some cases but it requires an immediate separation of the waste by the user and a functioning secondary market (demand at reasonable prices and functioning logistics)
Recycling waste is already implemented in most countries and in some best case scenarios, like in Sweden and Switzerland, the amount of recycling can reach 30-40%, at most. Recycling requires functioning separation facilities, constant education of the population on how to separate the waste, which waste is adequate for recycling and last but not least, infrastructure for the collection of separated waste and a secondary market for the separated waste apt for recycling. Examples of typical waste apt for recycling are paper, aluminum, glass and PET bottles. However, it is important to note that recycling, basically the breakdown of waste material to produce new products is an energy consuming process, i.e. requires energy to be possible. With what source is this energy produced?
Recovering waste is an energy efficient process where the inherent energy content of all materials is recovered by producing new energy; electricity and heat (or process steam). By using the waste as fuel, heating up water in a boiler at very high temperatures, the production of electricity and heat is possible. The process is also closely supervised and monitored to reduce the creation and emission of hazardous materials. In the first step, the waste is incinerated at a minimum of 850 degrees Celsius for at least two seconds. In the second step, the exhausts of the incineration process are cleaned in various modes and the resulting emissions are minimal. See emissions under (insert link to "emissions" below).
Secondary effects from waste treatment in the Donetsk Waste to Energy facility include:

• Reduced logistics costs as the waste collection trucks will travel shorter distances to the deposit of the waste
• Reduced emissions by the waste trucks - less empty travelling
• Reduced risk for spreading of waste over larger areas due to winds around the landfills
• Reduced health hazard for the people handling waste. With proper training current landfills workers could be hired by the waste to energy facility.

Project Alternatives

Developing waste management and energy supply for a community requires thorough research and analysis of the consumption patterns of the population, the existing infrastructure, the legislation, the secondary markets for materials and cost to invest and implement new projects, technologies, customs, and more.
In Donetsk, there are limited options for complete alternatives, i.e. that the facility could be substituted by another solution. There are of course complements to the projects, such as recycling materials, production of biogas from biological waste and reduction of waste production.
In the feasibility analysis, all of the options have been analyzed and the conclusions are that the Waste to Energy facility of EcoEnergy is the best, if not only, option for Donetsk viewed in a 5-10 year perspective.
Recycling requires the investment in both infrastructure - bins, trucks, sorting facilities and more. In addition there needs to be a functioning secondary market for the sorted materials, or, a system of subsidies, the latter no longer acceptable in our modern society.
Production of biogas from biological waste is of course one potential bi-product from waste sorting. However, the process of collecting a reliable and homogenous biogas material is not easy, and if that is not possible, the cost of producing the biogas will increase. As for recycling, there needs to be an offset market where the alternative fuel for biogas, normally natural gas, is priced higher than the biogas itself. This is possible in some markets, but from our experience in Sweden, there is a need for constant tax incentives and other subsidies for biogas facilities and production.

Emissions:

WtE in Donetsk will be operated under the strictest emission limits values both in Ukraine and Europe.
The flue gas cleaning system is designed to fulfill the EU directive on the incineration of waste (2000/76/EC) as well as Ukrainian emission legislation which will guarantee emission levels below the permitted and/or recommended values. Waste Incineration Directive sets the strictest emission limits in the European Union.
The WtE facility will be equipped with a flue gas cleaning system where the first step is addition of absorbents to the flue gases. The absorbents are lime and activated carbon which are mixed to slurry with water and are added to the flue gases. The addition of water increases the efficiency of the absorbents and makes the separation of the pollutants more effective. The absorbents and the pollutants are then separated from the flue gas in a bag house filter. The water amount is adapted so the flue gases dry the absorbents on the bag house filter.
The selection of flue gas cleaning system is based on the requirements in the EU directive (2000/76/EC) on incineration of waste. The directive requires that emission limits are fulfilled, both as 24 hours average values and half hour average values. The half hour averages are required to ensure that the flue gas cleaning system is able to react quickly on fluctuations in incoming emission levels.
Values are standardized for the following conditions: temperature 273 K, pressure 101.3 bar, 11% oxygen, dry gas.
The comparison shows that expected actual values fall below expected limit values, thus showing that the chosen flue gas cleaning technology manages to meet requirements concerning all pollutants expected to be regulated in the permit.
Daily average values and half hour average values, emission limits set by law in the Waste Incineration Directive compared to expected actual emission values after flue gas cleaning

Average values measured over the sample period of a minimum of 30 minutes and a maximum of 8 hours, emission limits set by law in the Waste Incineration Directive compared to expected actual emission values after flue gas cleaning

Average values which shall be measured over a sample period of a minimum of 6 hours and a maximum of 8 hours, emission limits set by law in the Waste Incineration Directive compared to expected actual emission values after flue gas cleaning

Limit values for carbon monoxide, CO, are as follows:
50 mg/m3 as a daily average
150 mg/m3 of at least 95% of all measurements determined as 10-minute average values or 100 mg/m3 of combustion gas of all measurements determined as half-hourly average values taken in any 24-hour period.

Estimations of annual emissions to air from the WtE facility

 WtE in Donetsk will be operated under the strictest emission limits values both in Ukraine and Europe.
The flue gas cleaning system is designed to fulfill the EU directive on the incineration of waste (2000/76/EC) as well as Ukrainian emission legislation which will guarantee emission levels below the permitted and/or recommended values. Waste Incineration Directive sets the strictest emission limits in the European Union.