Switzerland-headed energy from waste technology provider and dry fermentation specialists Hitachi Zosen Inova (HZI) has announced that it is to supply two Kompogas digesters for a biogas plant project in Nanjing, China. The order marks the second delivery in China of this technology for HZI.
The contract is to deliver two Kompogas PF1800 steel digesters to German Bio Energy Technology (Beijing) Co., Ltd (GBE) for a biogas plant project in the Chinese city of Nanjing, which is located around 300 km upriver from Shanghai.
The order is the second project of this sort for the Swiss company in a market that in addition to having great potential, also poses various challenges for western companies.
More and more countries around the world are setting up sustainable waste management and renewable energy programmes and in this area, China is the largest market for first-class environmental technologies.
For quite some time we have been the leading technology provider in the field of thermal energy recovery from waste technologies. Thanks to the realisation of our second Kompogas project in China, we are able to strengthen our position as a leading supplier for dry anaerobic digestion technology as well, commented Andres Kronenberg, Chief Business Development for Hitachi Zosen Inova, emphasizing the relevance of this project for the company.
Kroneberg pointed out that Nanjing, like many cities in China, Nanjing is struggling with ever-increasing volumes of waste from a steadily growing urban population. With landfilling not seen as a viable option anymore, there’s a growing need for sustainable technologies such as thermal energy recovery and biological treatment of organic waste.
According to Kroneberg, the trend to organic waste treatment in China is receiving a boost from new legislation containing tighter rules on recycling and recovering energy from restaurants and household kitchen waste.
Against this backdrop, the city of Nanjing is planning to build and operate a new waste park where waste, including organic household waste, is to be sorted and converted into biogas in a Kompogas plant to be delivered by HZI in partnership with GBE.
The two Kompogas digesters will process around 55 000 tonnes of organic waste annually to produce some 7.5 million Nm3 of biogas, which will subsequently be converted into electricity. After the digestate has been dewatered, the liquid fraction will be fed into a wastewater treatment plant (WWTP), while the solid digestate will be burned to produce additional energy.
With its Kompogas technology, HZI offers a perfectly equipped solution to upgrade waste to energy for Chinese cities to better master their major environmental and growing waste-related challenges, said Markus Dicke, CEO, GBE.
Dicke has over a decade of experience of working in this field in China.
The technology has to be extremely robust and competitive, guaranteeing the long-term success of our two reference projects in Chongqing and Nanjing and thus encouraging adoption by other cities, Dicke remarked.
Construction work is to begin in a few weeks and the biogas plant is scheduled to be ready to go into operation in spring 2019. The value of the order has not been disclosed.
