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Saudi gets “transformative” waste-to-fuel project: A joint venture between the Saudi Investment Recycling Company (Sirc) — a wholly owned subsidiary of the Public Investment Fund — and German waste management firm MVW Lechtenberg & Partner Middle East along with Norwegian blockchain firm Empower have launched a waste-to-fuel plant, Trade Arabia reports.
What we know: 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 including non-recyclable plastics and tyres as well as biodegradable matter. Non-combustible materials are separated from the burnable waste, which then gets shredded and burned. This is the second time Sirc and MVW Lechtenberg have worked on RDF together.
How it works: Empower is providing blockchain technology 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.
Uh, plastic credits, Enterprise? Plastic credits are a financing mechanism that give 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.
Sirc is on a roll: The PIF-owned company signed an MoU earlier this month with Greece’s Hellenic Environmental Center to establish environmental treatment centers for ship recycling services in Saudi. It acquired a 60% share in Masab Plastic Factory Company last year. Its global environmental services management company Reviva also partnered with the Saudi Ports Authority to establish a recycling complex for marine and industrial waste at Jeddah Islamic Port.
