That will be the first plant in HCMC using 100 percent Vietnamese technology, invested by Hydraulic – Machine Ltd Company and HCMC Urban Environment Company.
Chairman Nguyen Thanh Phong said that the volume of garbage in the city is very large. The city receives an average of 1.5 million tons of industrial garbage and 8,300 tons of household waste a day. The number will quickly increase in the upcoming time with the current population increase and economic development trend.
The city has a policy that economic development must attach to environmental protection and a target of reducing 50 percent of buried garbage volume by 2020. That means the remaining of 50 percent must be recycled into energy or compost.
Mr. Phong required the Department of Natural Resources and Environment to establish a scientists’ council to estimate results obtained from the pilot project at Go Cat landfill site to create a basis for investors to develop a such large scale plant in the upcoming time. The project should not affect the city’s environment, he noticed.
At the meeting, director of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment Nguyen Toan Thang said that Go Cat landfill site has closed the door since 2007. At that time, it received a total of 5.3 million tons of garbage.
HCMC Urban Environment Company has been assigned to manage the landfill site. The city has permitted it to build warehouses in the site to keep toxic industrial waste before transporting it to Dong Thanh garbage dump and other treatment places.
Director general of Hydraulic-Machine Company Nguyen Gia Long said that right after the city People’s Committee permitted implementation of the pilot project, the company together with HCMC Urban Environment Company started building the waste-to-energy automatic closed line in March 2017.
Go Cat landfill site was selected to implement the project because it already has a Dutch financed gas collection system for power generation and a national grid connected system invested by Vietnam Electricity.
The system generated electricity and connected to the national grid on April 22. The Urban Environment Company has sold electricity generated from the pilot project to HCMC Electricity Corporation at the price of 7.38 cents per kWh.
So far, the facility has treated 500 tons of industrial waste and produced 7MW of electricity for the national grid.
Mr. Nguyen Phuong Dong, deputy director of the city Department of Industry and Trade, said that according to the electricity industry’s development plan in the phase of 2015-2025, the city must get the target of producing 100MW renewable energy including solar, wind and waste power.
Still, the facility at Go Cat landfill site is the only renewable source in the city but its capacity is very small. Therefore, waste to energy is a necessary source to ensure the renewable energy target under the plan which has been approved by the Prime Minister.
At the meeting, Hydraulic-Machine Company proposed the city People’s Committee to develop a large plant with the capacity of treating 1,000 tons of garbage a day.
Deputy chairman of the People’s Committee Le Van Khoa said that investors should study more measures to make buried garbage into electricity to completely solve buried garbage, supply friendly environmental energy and improve environmental economic value.
