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Winning Energy from Garbage
Bacteria Having a Ball
Bandeirantes... It sounds like a beautiful dance, but it is the name of a
landfill in São Paulo. The city’s ten million inhabitants produce over seven
hundred truckloads of solid waste every day. More than half of that goes
to the Bandeirantes landfill. But with garbage, you can do beautiful things.
"Most of São Paulo’s garbage is not separated into recyclables
and non-recyclables," explains the plant’s operation manager,
Julio Cesar do Prado Jr. "That makes this garbage very ‘rich’:
ideal food for a special type of bacteria. When these bacteria
degrade garbage, they produce biogas. Biogas is primarily a
mixture of carbon dioxide and methane. Many people cook with
methane gas, but power plants can use it to produce energy.
And that is what they are doing in São Paulo."
São Paulo opened the bidding for the rights to use the biogas at
the Bandeirantes landfill in 1996. "Together with the contractor
that operates the landfill, we won that bid,"says Bertram Shayer,
one of the directors of the newly founded company Biogás.
"Nevertheless, we had to wait until last year for better business
conditions. Dutch Van der Wiel Stortgas BV joined the venture
then." The new company, which invested 3.5 million euros in
this project, has a twelve-year contract for gas delivery, worth 32
million euros."Biogás will collect twelve thousand cubic meters
of gas per hour, 24 hours per day, 365 days per year. This is
enough to produce electricity for 400,000 people,"Bertram says.
This mobile blower
removes solid and
liquid parts from the
biogas before it enters
the power plant.
LESS GLOBAL WARMING
"But there are other benefits," adds Manoel Antonio, author of
the project concept. "After fifteen years of operation, the new
plant will have prevented eight million tons of methane and
carbon dioxide from being released to the atmosphere. That is
very good in terms of slowing global warming. The plant will
also provide a boost for the energy sector in general. Some areas
of São Paulo, as well as other areas of Brazil have had occasional
blackouts. This is the result of insufficient investment in the
sector for years. With a brand new plant, there will certainly be
no blackouts in its surrounding areas."
PROUD AND ENTHUSIASTIC
The Biogás project was officially opened in January, as part of
São Paulo’s 450th anniversary celebrations. Bertram is proud and
enthusiastic: "It is the one of the world’s largest projects in which
biogas is used for energy. Hard to believe that we completed the
entire project, including the energy plant, in just three months!
Just before Christmas."
A radiator cools the
water that will be used
to keep the engine
at the right
temperature.
P.S.
After fifteen years
of operation, the
new plant will have
prevented eight million
tons of methane and
carbon dioxide from
being released to the
atmosphere.
I co-wrote the above article for ARCADIS Elements, in which it was published in April 2004.
Angelina Souren
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