ABU DHABI IN SLICK PLAN TO GENERATE ENERGY FROM LEFTOVER COOKING OIL
▶ Emirate aims to divert waste from landfill into generating electricity
Desert Burger is a small corner shawarma shop, one of the many cafeterias and restaurants in Abu Dhabi that together generate 20,000 litres of used cooking oil each day.
After he pops a serving of chips into the deep fryer, the cook gestures to a row of rubbish bins outside the shop, showing where all the oil used this day is destined at the end of his shift.
When restaurants do not throw the oil away they pour it down the drain, costing Abu Dhabi millions to clean up the clogged municipal sewer system.
But all that is set to change by the end of this year, when Tadweer, the Centre for Waste Management in Abu Dhabi, aims to divert all used cooking oil and hazardous medical waste that usually goes into Al Dhafra landfill and turn it into electricity.
The schemes are part of an Abu Dhabi plan to redirect 80 per cent of its waste from landfills, through recycling, by 2030 – up from the 30 per cent of 11 million tonnes of waste generated every year.
Saeed Al Mehairbi, Tadweer’s acting general manager, spoke about the pressure on the emirate’s landfill when the plan was announced in January during Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week.
Mr Al Mehairbi said he wished every resident in Abu Dhabi could visit, to see in person how much they were throwing away and what effect it had.
“We can feel and understand how we can help our environment,” he said. “Every person, young or old, can change their behaviour.”
The waste-to-energy scheme involves building three plants at an eco-park at Al Dhafra landfill, including the UAE’s first project to turn landfill-produced methane, a potent greenhouse gas, into energy.
Another plant will turn the cooking oil into biodiesel and fatty acids used to make soap, while a third will incinerate the emirate’s medical and hazardous waste.
Together the plants are worth Dh165 million, which will all come from investors, said Dr Udayan Banerjee, policy and legislation specialist at Tadweer.
Hazardous and medical waste producers will pay for collection, while businesses will be required to sell their used cooking oil according to their licence requirements with the Abu Dhabi Food Control Authority, for about 80 fils a litre.
Blue Al Serkal, the Dubai company that has been contracted to collect the cooking oil, is ready to go as soon as final approval is given, probably this year, says Mohammed Al Kaabi, its managing director.
The company has been collecting cooking oil in Dubai since 2011 and is likely to start operations in Abu Dhabi this year, Mr Al Kaabi said.
“We have the team and we can just dispatch the team from Dubai to Abu Dhabi, as simple as that,” he said.
A joint venture between Ramky and BRS Ventures will be responsible for collecting and incinerating about 15,000 tonnes a year of medical and hazardous waste in Abu Dhabi, while CleanCo will collect about 3,000 tonnes a year in Al Ain.
Dubai’s Green Energy Solutions and Sustainability will collect 60 to 70 per cent of the gases produced by the landfill and, according to preliminary estimates, produce 7 to 10 megawatts of electricity at another plant – enough to power the conversion and incineration projects.
The projects will also be registered with the development mechanism of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change for carbon credit.
Green Energy Solutions and Sustainability is already capturing methane at the Al Qusais landfill in Dubai, reducing the effects of the methane it produces by more than 300,000 tonnes a year, although there is no conversion scheme in place.
The company is also in the testing phase at another site in Ras Al Khaimah.
The GCC is still sending most of its waste to landfill, so the Abu Dhabi landfill gas-to-energy project, on which work is expected to start in June, is a game-changer, said Anita Nouri, chief executive of GES.
Ms Nouri said landfill gas power generation was “the lowest hanging fruit on the renewable energy tree”.
“The hurdles we face are breaking ground to enable these types of projects in the region,” she said.
“A place that has relied heavily on fossil fuels to supply power, which is moving towards renewable energy, is excellent but has its challenges.”
Methane, apart from being damaging to the environment, can also fuel landfill fires that can send carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and other harmful substances into the atmosphere, Dr Banerjee said.
“All those issues will be solved by the landfill gas-to-energy projects that we have signed,” he said.
“I would say it’s a very significant achievement in terms of managing methane and the overall environmental issue with respect to landfills.”
There are still many challenges ahead when it comes to Abu Dhabi’s waste.
Mr Al Mehairbi said that half of what is sent to landfill still came from construction and demolition.
Officials, meanwhile, are working on more solutions to reduce landfill size and Mr Al
It’s a very significant achievement in terms of managing methane and the overall environmental issue with respect to landfills
DR UDAYAN BANERJEE
Tadweer, policy and legislation specialist
Mehairbi said those were expected to include additional waste-reduction measures, programmes for food composting and recycling schemes.
Tadweer is also in the process of signing contracts for dead animal incinerators in the Abu Dhabi and Al Dhafra regions, as well as two contracts to recycle electronic and electrical waste in Abu Dhabi.