JEDDAH, 14 October 2003 — The Jeddah municipality has been in exploratory talks that could lead to the building of a high-temperature incinerator to dispose of the city’s increasing volume of waste. In a deal that involves private enterprise cooperating with municipal authorities, the project could provide electrical energy from waste and useful building materials as a byproduct.
With a capacity to burn 2,000 tons of solid waste a day — half of Jeddah’s current solid waste output — the plant would convert the heat energy produced to electricity, which would be sold to Saudi industrial companies or linked into the national grid.
Waste heat from the incineration would power a 400-megawatt power generating plant alongside the incinerator.
Muhammad Jaafar, heading the team from Dirincon Service, a Malaysian consortium that has already built several “waste to energy” incinerators using the same technology, said that talks in both Jeddah and Riyadh had been very positive.
“The plant solves the problem of solid waste disposal and is totally self-financing and self-contained,” he said. “The technology is proven — we have already built plants now operating in Japan, Germany, Belgium, China and South Korea, where concerns about a negative impact on the environment have proved groundless.”
For example, the level of dioxins emitted by the plant is 0.01 ngTEQ/NM3, a world record. Emissions from the plants in operation are minimal and are well under the safety limits set by the World Health Organization, and the technology is recognized and approved by the World Bank.
Constructed on a “build-operate-own” basis, the plant would not require any financial commitment from the Kingdom. Local companies would benefit from the three-year construction project and later from the operation of the incinerator. “It’s a win-win scheme,” said Muhammad Jaafar.
Hamad ibn Hadi ibn Musallam, deputy general manager of the SKAB Sadaca Group that operates Jeddah’s first recycling plant and the Saudi partner in the project, said the proposed plant formed the other half of the recycling program already under way.
“The plant burns off the low-grade waste that remains after the easily recyclable materials have been recovered,” he said. “Ninety percent of the solid is converted to electricity, three percent is solid ash that can be sold for laying the foundations of roads or to make building materials, and the other seven percent is a metal alloy that can be sold to refiners.”
The plant even recycles its own water and produces some of its own fuel.
