What is Energy from Waste?
Energy from waste, as the name implies, is a means to recover energy from the waste our society produces.
The Government's "Waste Strategy for England” published in 2007 states ‘that recovering energy from waste, that cannot sensibly be recycled, is an essential part of a well balanced energy policy."
There are a number of different technologies available that make this policy possible. The final selection of which is most appropriate rests on what the commissioning authority is trying to achieve, both in terms of energy output required and the scale and nature of waste that it wants to convert.
Wheelabrator Technologies specialises in the combustion of waste to create electricity and has developed a simple and well-proven technology that does this efficiently and safely.
In effect, this is achieved by feeding municipal solid waste into large power boilers (see technology section) specifically designed to do this job efficiently and effectively. The resulting energy is harnessed to produce steam and subsequently electricity, which is fed directly into the national grid system earning revenues for the local authority that can potentially help offset rises in council taxation.
These plants are now so efficient and environmentally friendly that the US Environmental Protection Agency (the equivalent of our own Environment Agency) has stated that energy from waste plants produce electricity with "less environmental impact than almost any other source."
The amount of energy produced from unwanted waste can be considerable. An energy from waste plant consuming 1500 tonnes per day of municipal waste, has a generating capacity of more than 50,000 KW of electrical energy, much of which can be classed as renewable. This amounts to supplying all of the electrical needs for 50,000 homes.
Combine this with the fact the volume of municipal waste is typically reduced by more than 90 per cent as a result of the process and it is easy to see why EfW has a the potential to make such a significant and positive impact on the landfill problem in the UK.
