To clarify: It is Nearly waste. Not about recycle materials like paper, plastics, recycled glass or compostable organic waste.
Truth and cleanliness
What I noticed during the tour: In the plant, each step is carefully considered, it is worked with great precision. And even if that sounds paradoxical: it is squeaky clean! Just in the hallway where different wastes are blended on conveyor belts, there is the normal odor of rubbish, but also not as bad as originally expected.
Amazing for me: I didn’t know that by using residual waste a really large amount of electricity is generated. And reassuring for me: tools are won even from the last drop: metal, material for road building, plaster in good quality. The proportion of what is factually left and actually not recycled, seems negligible to low.
From waste to electricity — the process in detail
The residual waste incinerator in Cologne was set into operation in 1998 and is one of the most modern and best facilities in the world. It processes what’s landed in the residual waste after the individual group of private households, as well as the remains of sorting out of combined industrial and building waste. The railway containers are loaded in two waste transfer stations in the city of Cologne and collectively have a capacity of approximately 250,000 tons each year. The remaining waste is brought by truck.
From the enormous hall of the conveyor belts the waste enters the so-called remaining waste bunker. Here it is stored a while until enough moisture has dissipated, so it can burn nicely. By means of permanent temperature and humidity indicators it is controlled, in what condition the waste is. With large gripping cranes the waste is rearranged and eventually put in the kiln. The garbage gripper fill four enormous funnels. The waste comes from here in four independently powered boilers that operate around the clock. The waste moves on roller grates throughout the boiler. At an unimaginable heat of 1,000 to 1,500 degrees Celsius. The respective”new” waste ignites in the burning garbage. So no additional external energy is required for the combustion process. The combustion occurs after the DC principle: The burning of waste and the waste gases move in the exact same direction through the”hot flame” at the end of the grate. The heat generated during combustion is used. On the one hand, to heat the nearby Ford plant. However, this is just a great side effect. The majority of the heat is converted to electricity by generators. And even that the energy consumption of 250,000 people can be fulfilled. The waste incineration plant Cologne is thus basically a power plant and supplies a quarter of the city of Cologne with electricity. And because you could find the idea it is not too bad when so much garbage is produced — because it is used so well…
After combustion bottom ash, hot exhaust gas and residues remain. These substances are largely used again useful: The ash is cooled with water and kept in an ash bunker before it is processed at a bottom ash treatment plant and then utilized in street, landfill and landscaping.
Lately a dream came true for me. I had the opportunity to participate in a guided tour through the waste incineration plant in Cologne. That may seem strange. Sometimes I catch myself when I get stuck on documentary programs about recycling methods in the (rare) zapping through the TV channels. Obviously this subject fascinates me.
The BVMW (Federal Association of Medium-Sized Enterprises) invited to a lecture on the subject of generation Y. Host and the place was the waste recycling company in Cologne, AVG, which offered additionally a guided tour through their waste incinerator. Since I’m also quite interested in the subject Generation Y, I could kill two birds with one stone.
A special feature of the Cologne residual waste incinerator is the integrated treatment of the waste in a treatment room. Residues from sorting and residues from the domestic and bulky waste are distributed to the daily waste bunker on different chambers. The bulky waste is pre-sorted and crushed. Just the non-recoverable components are processed in the incinerator.
The household waste is sorted in a perforated drum to size and then passes on large conveyor belts so-called magnetic seperators. They remove ferrous scrap. Another ferrous metal deposition as well as an automatic non-ferrous residue occur after combustion.
Even commercial waste residuals are delivered to the Cologne plant. They have been processed previously in external sorting, so they can be added directly to the domestic and bulky waste. The various waste streams are mixed thoroughly, because this homogenization guarantees a high quality, a uniform as possible burnout and a fantastic quality ash.
The hot exhaust gas is used for electricity generation. It heats preheated water to steam, which meets at a temperature of 400 degrees Celsius and a pressure of 40 bar to a turbine. This pushes the downstream generator with which is generated electrical power. For own use just a small portion of the energy is necessary. The greater part is given in external electricity supply networks. The quantity of energy generated in the incinerator is enough to power more than 100,000 families.
In the combustion and the subsequent exhaust gas purification residual substances like dust and salts remain as well as ashes from the boiler. Gypsum can also be a waste material, which is obtained as a reaction product in the exhaust gas purification and has building material quality.
Emission control: the exhaust gases are almost entirely neutralized by the method used in the Cologne incinerator. There’s absolutely no waste water, as well as the legal requirements are clearly undercut. As a neutral auditor, the county government receives the actual exhaust gas readings permanently by direct line.
Rethinking at waste management companies
After the guided tour, I had the opportunity to talk to the media officer of AVG. In this conversation it became apparent how much the thinking has changed in the area of waste management in recent decades and years. While throughout the 1960s to the 1990s garbage was piled up completely unsorted in landfills and then abandoned, in the new millennium they have recognized the value of the waste. Climate change and CO2 emissions have pushed as important issues in focus for the residual waste processing. The heat generated during combustion is converted to electricity. Resources are regained, as far as is technically possible. Especially metal, wood and plastics. The recovered plastic from residual waste is used for example as fuel for cement plants.
Waste incineration plant are nowadays equatable to power plants, even when fuel value isn’t quite equivalent to the traditional fuels like coal, gas and oil. As more and more municipalities have started to generate their own electricity by means of residual waste incineration, the major electricity suppliers get in significant issues. That what is put in the residual waste in private families plus the industrial waste is, after all, still god to supply 100,000 families with electricity in Cologne.
And at the exact same time it’s scary, what unbelievable tonnes of waste we create. Yellow and blue ton even come on top of that.
Consumer society offers garbage
Waste incineration plants generating electricity for us and making us less dependent on fossil fuels, are the logical consequence of our consumer society. But incinerators aren’t built primarily to generate electricity. However, to become master of the mountains of waste that we produce continuously as a consumer society. Fortunately, with modern incinerators, a way was found to make up the stinking issue a clean thing. However, the reason, our consumption, is the true issue.
For the operators of the incineration plant, it is very important that enough waste is delivered. Garbage is their merchandise. The more they can get, the better for the system’s capacity. For then it’ll work cost-effectively, which in turn has a positive influence on the urban garbage fees. Not all incinerators in Germany are so well utilized as in Cologne. Since waste is added from adjacent areas.
However, the consumer society provides these masses of garbage. Goods are produced in large quantities, purchased, consumed or used and eventually discarded. The 2aste incineration plant will get food — in 2013 there were 707,000 tons in Cologne. And provides us even with electricity (282 million kWh in 2013 in Cologne). Actually a perfect cycle, so one may think. If not for this”but” would be. Since our conventional consumption goes at the expense of other nations, to the detriment of the environment, fair working conditions; Resources are wasted, the transportation around the globe has influence on the climate, production facilities in the Far East poison the local environment and so forth.
Well, I live in Cologne, a big town, where certainly only a small proportion of residents consider trash, disposal or even waste reduction and also practice this. That might be a negative point of view, but I think it is realistic. The average normal citizen does not necessarily ask the question what is actually happening to what he throws away in the course of a year. All the more it is interesting to follow the different paths. My next wish is to go to a recycling plant for plastics. The latest approach is waste prevention. In its most different version it is named Zero Waste. No waste. So far there are just a few leaders, whose reports and videos I read and watch with interest. And at exactly the exact same time I wonder how to implement this at a normal big-city life. It starts with the fact that — even if you use a togo box, which is compostable, then you do not know where to dispose of it along the way. So take it home and place it in the compost bin? Would everyone do that?
I think it’s great if it is possible, to be master of the situation (immense quantities of waste) through a well organized disposal system and beyond even to convert this residual waste to a large extent into energy, ie electricity and heating. There’s at least a enormous improvement as against the stinking landfill from earlier, where everything was thrown into a heap and then covered with the cloak of silence. The following step must be, to decrease the quantity of waste in total. And this will not be possible just from the civil society. Here politics and economy are asked to make the right framework and to set the practical implementation in movement.
by: http://blog.upcycling-markt.de/en/blog/muellverbrennungsanlange-waste-incineration-plant.html
But the consumer society provides these masses of garbage. Goods are produced in large quantities, purchased, used or consumed and eventually discarded. The 2aste incineration plant gets food – in 2013 there were 707,000 tons in Cologne. And provides us even with power (282 million kWh in 2013 in Cologne). Actually a perfect cycle, so one might think. If not for this “but” would be. Because our conventional consumption goes at the expense of other countries, to the detriment of the environment, fair working conditions; Resources are wasted, the transport around the globe has impact on the climate, production facilities in the Far East poison the local environment and so on.
Well, I live in Cologne, a big city, where certainly only a small proportion of residents think about trash, disposal or even waste reduction and also practice this. That may be a negative point of view, but I think it is realistic. The average normal citizen does not necessarily ask the question what is actually happening to what he throws away in the course of a year. All the more it is interesting to follow the different paths. My next wish is to visit a recycling plant for plastics.
Waste incineration and waste seperation versus waste prevention
Waste separation was yesterday. The latest approach is waste prevention. In its most distinct version it is called Zero Waste. No waste. So far there are only a few pioneers, whose reports and videos I read and watch with interest. And at the same time I wonder how to implement this in a normal big-city life. It starts with the fact that – even if you use a togo box, which is compostable, then you do not know where to dispose of it along the way. So take it home and put it in the compost bin? Would everybody do that?
I think it’s great if it is possible, to be master of the situation (immense amounts of waste) through a well organized disposal system and beyond even to convert this residual waste to a large extent into energy, ie electricity and heating. There is at least a huge improvement as against the stinking landfill from earlier, in which everything was thrown into a pile and then covered with the cloak of silence. The next step must be, to reduce the amount of waste in total. And this will not be possible just by the civil society. Here politics and economy are asked to create the right framework and to set the practical implementation in motion.
by: http://blog.upcycling-markt.de/en/blog/muellverbrennungsanlange-waste-incineration-plant.html