The perception of Waste-to-Energy

Confederation of European Waste-to-Energy Plants

Dr. Ella Stengler CEWEP - Managing Director

WASTECON 2009Long Beach

CEWEP Confederation of European Waste-to-Energy Plants

CEWEP represents about 380 Waste-to-Energy plants across Europe, 88% of the European market.

They thermally treat household and similar waste, that remains after waste prevention, reuse and recycling by generating energy from it.

This is how they replace fossil fuels, such as coal, used by conventional power plants.

• Waste-to-Energy Plants in Europe operating in 2007 (not including hazardous waste incineration plants)• Thermally treated household and similar waste

Waste-to-Energy in Europe

Finland1 0.05

Sweden30 4.5

Norway20 0.9

Estonia

Latvia

LithuaniaDenmark29* 3.5

United Kingdom20 4.4

Ireland

Netherlands11 5.8

Belgium16 2.6

Germany67 17.8

Poland1 0.05

France130 12.3

Luxembourg1 0.1

Czech Republic3 0.4 Slovakia

2 0.2*

Austria8 1.6Switzerland

28 3.6

Hungary1 0.4

Slovenia Romania

Bulgaria

Greece

Spain10 1.8

Portugal3 1

Italy51 4

Data supplied by CEWEP members unless specified otherwise

* From Eurostat to give an estimate only, as co-incineration plants are included. * Data for 2006 used as data for 2007 are not yet available.

The perception of NGOs

God

Recycles

&

The Devil

Burns

Perceptions

What we did …

Making alliances: Coalition of European Associations tackling main concerns raised by NGOs

Waste Management in user-friendly language

A little humour goes a long wayAll available on www.cewep.eu

Dinner/Lunch debates and Technical visits

Communication approach Transparency and open dialogue

With the press• all emission results• consistent, persistent• press briefings, press releases

With the neighbours• ombudsman• all emission results first to neighbours• involved in new initiatives

With the general public • through media• brochure

With the authorities• face-to-face contacts• road shows

Recommendations from Tom De Bruyckere’s presentation on ISVAG WtE Plant, Belgium at the CEWEP Congress 2008

Communication approachInformation

In countries where people are familiar with WtE (e.g. long tradition in Scandinavian countries) perception much better than in countries without WtE

-> Information is essential

…. Some facts and figures ….

Treatment of MSW in Europe

> 40% of Municipal Solid Waste across the EU 27 is still landfilled,

although landfill gases (methane) contribute significantly to global warming (methane equals 25 times CO2 in mass).

Treatment of Municipal Solid Waste in the EU 27 in 2007Source: EUROSTAT

Waste Hierarchy

The 5step waste hierarchy in the European Waste Framework Directive helps to achieve sustainable waste management, placing prevention at the top and disposal (such as landfilling) as the least favoured option.

The Member States who have most successfully reduced dependence on landfill have done this by combining:

• material recycling

• biological treatment (composting and anaerobic digestion)

• and Waste-to-Energy

Proving that WtE goes hand in hand with Recycling.

WtE hand in hand with Recycling

Treatment of MSW in the EU 27 in 2007 Source: EUROSTAT

WtE: cleanly and safely treating your waste

Sophisticated filtering devices minimise the emissions into the atmosphere by blocking the pollutants, originating from the waste, such as heavy metals.

The Waste Incineration Directive 2000/76/EC introduced the most stringent emission limit values applied to any single industry in Europe.

WtE plant (MVR) Hamburg, operating Best Available Techniques (BAT)

Lisbon University's Institute of Preventive Medicine: waste incineration "does not impact on dioxin blood levels of nearby residents" of Waste-to-Energy plants www.sciencedirect.com

UK Committee of Carcinogenity: “any potential risk of cancer due to residency near to municipal solid waste incinerators was exceedingly low, and probably not measurable by the most modern epidemiological techniques” http://www.advisorybodies.doh.gov.uk/Coc/munipwst.htm

Health studies

Health studies

The Scientific Advisory Council of the Federal Medical Association

(Germany) investigated potential health risks caused by emissions of

Waste-to-Energy Plants, concluding:

Source: German Medical Journal 90, edition 1 / 2, 11th of January 1993,

p. 45-53, Publications

“The evaluation conducted shows that currently operating Waste-to-Energy Plants, which are conform to the technical standards, cause very marginal health risks which can therefore be classified as negligible health risks for the population living in the vicinity of Waste-to-Energy Plants”

WtE: Contributing to climateprotection

WtE plants replace fossil fuels, such as coal, which would have been used by conventional power plants to produce the energy which is generated by WtE plants.

This is how they save CO2 emissions and reduce Europe’s dependence on limited fossil fuel resources.

WtE’s contribution to renewable energy generation

Directive on Energy from Renewable Sources (RES):

Definition of biomass (Art. 2) comprises the biodegradable fraction of industrial and municipal waste

renewable energy source

The RES Directive

►20% share of renewables in overall EU energy consumption

Ambitious targets: today 8.5% of energy is renewable.

To achieve a 20% share by 2020 will require major

efforts across all sectors of the economy and by all

Member States.

WtE’s contribution to renewable energy generation

67,9% of the EU 27’s renewable energy sources comes from biomass and waste, 12% of which is from municipal waste [1].

WtE already supplies a considerable amount of renewable energy

-> about 34 billion Kilowatt-hours (34 Terawatt-hours) reference year: 2006 [2]

(= ca. 50% of the total energy generation by WtE Plants as we assume 50% biodegradable part in MSW )

[1] European Environment Agency, "Maximising the environmental benefits of Europe’s bioenergy potential", Technical report 2008 http://reports.eea.europa.eu/technical_report_2008_10/en

[2] Electricity consumption @ 3500 kWh per householdHeat consumption @ 16500 kWh heat per household, which is the average heat consumption of households in Dk and NL)

Renewable energy 2006by (selected) country

Renewable Energy 2020 by (selected) country

WtE Renewable Energy development

Share of renewable Energy from WtE as a % of total renewable energy for selected countries

Country 2006 2020

NL 14,3 4,4

BE 13,3 2,5

DK 12,5 6,3

DE 7,5 3,0

CZ 3,9 3,3

SE 3,7 4,7

UK 3,6 1,8

Assumption is that countries do achieve their binding target for renewable energy by 2020.

Decline of % contributed by WtE is because total renewable energy per country must grow much faster in order to meet the target.

Communicate the benefits of WtE

• WtE helps to reduce both, dependence on landfill and limited fossil fuel resources

• is a cost-effective and reliable renewable energy source

• is an effective option to reduce GHG emissions

• the technology (grate furnace) is robust and proven for decades of experience

Apropos robust and proven ….

What about the “innovative” alternatives to WtE, such as

gasification, pyrolisis, mechanical biological treatment

(MBT) etc?

Are they proven?

Are they robust enough to take the residual heterogenous

waste?

Can MBT avoid the non beloved “incineration”?

Can MBT avoid landfilling?

MBT

One has to bear in mind that MBT is only a pretreatment. It does not work without landfilling or thermal treatment.

Does this pretreatment have advantages- From an environmental point of view?- From a hygiene point of view? working conditions for

employees?- From an economic point of view?

Let’s have a look what the experts say, …from a country which gathered some appropriate experience

MBT

German advisory council on the environment (SRU):

2008 environment policy report

10.2.4 Conclusions and Suggestions:

“The mechanical-biological treatment of waste (MBT) has been established as complementary to incineration, but it is still fighting with the fulfillment of the edge conditions like security of disposal, conformity with current legislation and economics. Due to these open questions, further constructions of MBT plants are currently not advised. There are chances of this treatment when being enhanced to a material flow method before incineration or as an export technology”.

The SRU is a scientific advisory board of the German Government to which it delivers every 4 years an environment report.

http://www.umweltrat.de/02gutach/downlo02/umweltg/UG_2008.pdf.

Desperate search for alternatives

“Are there real alternatives to incineration for the remaining waste?”Negative public perception of waste incineration has lead to search desperately for alternative methods to treat this remaining waste e.g. via gasification, pyrolysis or plasma.

However, these treatment methods do not receive any greater sympathy from the NGOs than traditional incineration as can be seen, inter alia, in a study by GAIA[1].

[1] Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA) on “An industry blowing smoke: 10 Reasons Why Gasification, Pyrolysis & Plasma Incineration are Not “Green Solutions” 2009 http://www.no-burn.org/downloads/BlowingSmokeReport.pdf

Serious alternatives to incineration?

They mention a report by Fichtner Consulting Engineers

where it is stated that

“Many of the perceived benefits of gasification and pyrolysis over combustion technology proved to be unfounded.[2]”

[2] The Viability of Advanced Thermal Treatment in the UK, Fichtner Consulting Engineers Limited, 2004, p.4

Communicate proven technology

100 Years of Waste Incineration in Denmark:

From Refuse Destruction Plants to High-technology Energy Works

By Heron Kleis, Babcock & Wilcox Vølund and Søren Dalager, Rambøll (2004), p 48

http://www.cewep.eu/statements/subdir/art249,234.html

We are not talking about this...

Modern WtE is safe and clean …

and often even beautiful …… and in the city centre

Spot the Waste-to-Energy Plant!City of Monaco

CEWEP

For more information on Waste to Energy:

CEWEP

Confederation of

European Waste-to-Energy Plants

Boulevard Clovis 12A,

B-1000 Brussels

Tel. +32 2 770 63 11

Fax +32 2 770 68 14

info@cewep.eu

www.cewep.eu