Coalition claims proposed gasification plant won’t work
The coalition No Burn Pilipinas (NBP) has warned the City government the planned “gasification plant” proposed to be established by a private company is doomed to fail. In a statement, the civil society coalition claimed that the proposed design of the waste-to-energy facility has not been proven to be viable. “It seems that the Puerto Princesa City’s local government hasn’t done any basic homework on gasification and so-called ‘wasteto-energy’ plants before they entered into a multibillion peso deal,” Lea Guerrero, Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives campaigner, said. The city government has signed an agreement with AustWorks Corporation (AWC) to build a P2 billion power facility designed to produce around 5 megawatts of electricity utilizing the city’ daily output of domestic waste. The city also endorsed the project’s adoption of “gasification” technology, stating it will address its problem of waste management while producing additional power supply for the city. The NBP, a nationwide alliance of 50 civil society groups, claimed the technology has remained questionable due to its failure in other countries where it has been applied. “No commercial application of gasification, pyrolysis or plasma arc facilities has succeeded anywhere in the world,” the NBP said. The group also claimed that the high cost of operating the technology sets up the project for failure. “Gasification facilities are known to use more energy than it can produce. Reliable energy generation is a common problem at gasification plants. Several gasification plants in Europe have shut down because they can’t produce the electricity they promised. Even incinerator proponents acknowledge that gasification facilities have a negative energy balance, producing a lot less electricity than it needs to generate it in the first place,” the group said. “We seriously doubt whether Puerto Princesa will realize any financial gains from this project. They will very likely end up heavily in debt should they pursue this project,” Guerrero said. The NBP also criticized the city government’s stance that the techology has rendered its current waste management practice “obsolete”. The group was reacting to a media statement earlier made by city administrator Arnel Pedrosa describing the government’s current waste segregation policy as “too good to be true.” Ruel Cabili, WTE campaigner for the EcoWaste Coalition, said the zero waste approach provided by RA 9003 “is the “best alternative” to WTE as it mitigates climate change by preventing fossil fuel extraction. “Waste reduction and recycling help improve overall health by decreasing exposures to hazardous materials and prevent pollutants from contaminating the environment,” he said. The coalition urged the City government to “back out” from what they called a “highly dubious project,” and to “pursue a zero waste approach to waste management,” as mandated to local government units under R.A. 9003. Besides being the “cheapest way” to reduce solid waste, Cabili said recycling and composting practices as part of zero waste approach also “create 10 to 20 times job compare to incinerators.”