Monday, January 29, 2007 ‘Garbage power’ experiment set to start in March
THE Cebu City Inayawan landfill will have its own power supply sourced from biogas by March.
The machine needed for the waste-to-energy (WTE) treatment facility will be available two weeks from now.
City Councilor Nestor Archival said that setting up the facility will take at most a month, so the expected 75-kilowatt output will be realized by March at the earliest.
“The machine is expected by Feb. 7. We can have one month for installation, after which, we can produce electricity, up to 75 kilowatts,” he said.
The facility was supposed to be operational in October last year, but rains and the delayed arrival of the machine caused the schedule to be altered.
Mayor Tomas Osmeña said gas from the landfill will fuel the facility, which serves as a demonstration for a bigger power plant.
US-based Philippine Bio-Sciences Corp. Inc. (PhilBio) promised that after demonstrating that waste can light up communities through its facility, it will build a more ambitious plant.
Built at no cost to the City Government, the P16-million facility is an experimental project designed to prove that gas can be collected from garbage and used to generate cheap electricity.
The procedure involves the conversion of organic wastes to liquefied gas then to methane, which can be used for all kinds of energy needs.
PhilBio introduced the project to show that the City will gain environmental benefits from the project and get “an alternative source of cheap, indigenous, stable and renewable source of electricity, which will reduce dependence on grid power.”
In an earlier interview, Archival had said that with the average home using 1,000 watts of power, Philbio could provide electricity through the facility to at least 75 houses.
There are complaints, however, that odor from the landfill reached the South Road Properties and bothered motorists.
The mayor said the City is already covering the landfill.
He admitted, though, that instead of using the heavy equipment and putting topsoil, workers there opt to just pour oil on the waste and leave the heap burning.
“That is why I don’t want to give them an increase. And I cannot even fire them,” he said. (RHM)
