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Saudi gets a waste-to-fuel plant: German waste management firm MVW Lechtenberg Middle East, the PIF-backed Saudi Investment Recycling Company (SIRC) and Norwegian blockchain firm Empower have launched a mega waste-to-fuel plant to process waste from across six governorates, Trade Arabia reports.
The details: The project aims to process some 3 mn tons of municipal solid waste per year to produce refuse-derived fuels (RDF) in six governorates. The fuel will be acquired by six cement producers estimated to have a total cement clinker production capacity of 20 mn tons per year. Some 35% of the processed waste will be converted to RDF, while 14% will be recycled. It is set to slash carbon dioxide emissions by 1.8 mn tons per year when fully operational.
REFRESHER- What’s RDF? RDF is a type of fuel produced from various forms of waste and consists of combustible components, such as non-recyclable plastics and tyres, and biodegradable matter. Non-combustible materials are separated from the waste and the rest gets shredded and burned.
How it works: Empower is providing blockchain technology to track the waste from collection to burning — important if the backers want to claim a green footprint for the project. It will integrate plastic credits certified by GPN Corporation’s GPx traceability standard.
Plastic credits? This financing mechanism gives companies incentives to keep or take plastics out of the environment. By certifying that it is pulling a certain amount of plastic out of the environment, SIRC-Lechtenberg project can then sell plastic credits to any company that produces plastic, allowing the latter to offset that part of its production.
Not the first time: This marks MVW Lechtenberg and SIRC’s second RDF collaboration after the two — as part of a JV that includes City Cement Company’s subsidiary Green Solutions Environmental Services (GSES) — launched operations for a 600 ton per day plant in 2022. Lechtenberg Middle East — the firm’s registered subsidiary in Riyadh — also formed the JV Innovative Solutions for Environmental Services Company with SIRC’s Tadweer Environmental Services Company and GSES last year to produce alternative fuel from waste, with a starting capital of SAR 6.7 mn.
RDF is taking off in the region: Oman Cement Company said it is launching a 3.6 mn ton waste-to-energy facility that will use RDF processed from municipal solid waste to power its cement complex in Misfah. Be’ah partnered with Oman Cement last year to supply RDF made from household and business waste to be burned as fuel in cement kilns. Emirates RDF — owner of the first of its kind RDF Treatment Facility in the GCC — signed four MoUs with local cement producers to add RDF to their energy mix in 2022. Kuwait Municipality is also working on a RDF project to power up its main cement production plant.
