Waste-to-energy project using German tech launched

BUSINESS MIRROR

MONDAY, 11 JULY 2011 17:44 JOEY PAVIA / CORRESPONDENT

LUBAO, Pampanga—An integrated waste-to-energy technology used in Germany for 30 years and adopted recently in Australia was launched here on Monday, giving Gov. Lilia “Baby” Pineda hope that the province can help solve the province’s problem on solid-waste management.

James Mackay, head of The Mackay Group (TMKG), presented to Pineda and the provincial board, led by Vice Gov. Joseller Guiao the new technology that does away with sanitary landfills. His group will initially invest $65 million in the first phase of the project expected to employ some 150 local residents.

The TMKG will benefit from generating 22 megawatts of continuous power daily for some 110,000 households in Pampanga. Its project will be fuelled by the average 800 metric tons of garbage generated daily in the province.

Mackay said that their proposed technology is“environment-friendly,” using “total combustion of waste and not burning.”

“There is zero emission from the combustion of garbage using temperatures between 1,200 and 1,800 degrees Celsius,” said Mackay, who partnered with Lubao Mayor Mylene Pineda-Cayabyab, daughter of Pineda, in the project at the material recovery facility (MRF) in barangay Sta. Catalina here.

Shane Mulcahy, executive consultant of TMKG, said they expect to get the necessary permits, including the environment clearance certificate from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), “hopefully by August.”

Pineda said the provincial government “welcomes any feasible project on solid waste as long as they are environment-friendly and effective.”

She said that she will personally visit and inspect the same technology in Germany “to ensure its viability and ensure the protection of lives and the environment.”

“The visit in Germany with the DENR and some provincial government heads will be done even if Mackay’s group got all the permits from the government,” said Pineda in an interview after the presentation of the waste-to-energy project at the 24-hectare site owned by the Lubao municipal government.

Mackay said they chose Pampanga in the group’s first-ever project in the country because Pineda “is transparent and willing to solve the big problem on garbage.”

“The deal with the governor and the Lubao mayor will be made public. No under-the-table deal stuff,” added Mackay. He was accompanied by former Tourism Usec. Cynthia Carreon, who also serves as a TMKG consultant for the Pampanga project.

Mackay said “it is a win-win” situation between TMKG and the Pineda administration. The TMKG’s Philippine group is Mackay Green Energy (MGE).  Mackay said the Pampanga government will not be charged any tipping fee.

Art Punzalan, head of the provincial Environment and Natural Resources Office (ENRO), said they allot some P15,000 for one truck to deliver waste at the Kalangitan sanitary landfill in Capas, Tarlac. He added about P8,000 from the truck’s budget goes to the tipping fee charged at the privately-owned landfill.

Punzalan ealier disclosed that the province spends about P500 million on solid-waste management in one year.

The annual total budget of Pampanga is P1.45 billion, according to board member Nestor Tolentino, chairman of the committee on environment, who asked the TMKG to ensure the protection of the environment “so as not to encounter problems with us, green groups and the DENR.”

Mackay disclosed that there is no need for MRFs in their “zero waste-to-energy” project. He added that “raw garbage” brought in by trucks will be delivered at the site near the Catalina dike whose roads are hardly used by motorists. It’s about two kilometers from the Olongapo-Gapan Road in Lubao.

In Germany the Mackay Exner Waste Processing System turns waste into energy, said Mackay.

But in Pampanga, Mackay added, the segregation of raw waste and garbage will also be handled at the site.

“The proposed project in Lubao is an end-to-end solution to the garbage problem in Pampanga,” he added.

“The fuel that is recovered during the waste processing is then used to produce renewable energy by burning it in the Mackay Indirectly Fired Gas Turbine. This technology is the world’s first and has been developed in Australia,” said the TMKG in a statement.

Cayabyab said her family’s friends and allies, including Carrion who was a tourism consultant of then-President and now Second Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, helped them get in touch with MacKay’s group.