As a small island, waste management is one of Singapore’s biggest environmental challenges. With the city state’s only landfill – the offshore island of Pulau Semakau – projected to reach its maximum capacity by 2035, Singapore needs compact, effective waste management solutions, and fast.
Local firm Keppel Seghers has turned this challenge into an opportunity by developing technologies and solutions in waste management for Singapore, which they are now able to export to the rest of the world.
The firm – which is the environmental technology arm of the multinational Keppel Corporation - is one of 160 companies that will showcase their latest waste management technologies and solutions at the upcoming WasteMET Asia 2014, a regional exhibition to showcase the latest innovative equipment and technologies in waste management and recycling solutions.
Keppel Seghers is the founding sponsor of this event for the second consecutive time. Organised by the Waste Management and Recycling Association of Singapore (WMRAS) and the National Environment Agency (NEA), WasteMET Asia made its debut in 2012 and is part of the bi-annual CleanEnviro Summit Singapore (CESS).
CESS is NEA’s global networking platform for technical experts, policymakers and industry leaders to collectively develop solutions to waste, water and energy-related problems in Asia.
CESS and WasteMET Asia, along with partner event CleanMET Asia - an exhibition and conference on cleaning management and environmental technology is held with the World Cities Summit and the Singapore International Water Week 2012. The co-location of these three summits, said the organisers, would “tap on the synergies between water, energy and waste in urban planning”.
In 2012, Keppel Seghers exhibited a high-profile overseas project - the Domestic Solid Waste Management Centre (DSWMC) in Qatar. The facility was designed to serve the domestic waste treatment needs for the whole of Qatar, and featured state-of-the-art technologies in one location, which allowed an optimum configuration for domestic waste to be sorted, recycled, composted, incinerated and land-filled.
Goh Eng Kwang, Keppel Seghers general manager, told Eco-Business: “We’re happy to report that the DSWMC has been running with excellent operational and safety record to date”.
Keppel’s experience in waste management solutions is grounded in decades of experience in solving Singapore’s waste challenges. It won the country’s first deal under NEA’s Public-Private Partnership initiative to build a waste-to-energy plant, and also clinched a contract to set up the Keppel Seghers Ulu Pandan NEWater Plant. NEWater is high-grade reclaimed water that is produced by using advanced membrane technologies and ultra-violet disinfection to purify used water, making it ultra-clean and safe to drink. It is also used in industrial applications such as wafer fabrication, and manufacturing.
The Keppel Seghers Tuas WTE plant is unique in that it only occupies 1.6 hectares of space, even as it treats 800 tonnes of solid waste daily to generate about 22 megawatts (MW) of green energy.
“It is one of the most compact WTE plants in the world”, shared Goh. “Space efficiency is important for land-scarce Singapore”.
Land scarcity is a concern not just in Singapore, but througout Asia, which is home to most of the world’s megacities, and is urbanising faster than the rest of the world. Resource and energy scarcity further compound the problem, but the technologies and solutions developed by Keppel Seghers can help addresses these challenges, said Goh.
“With mounting volumes of waste, depleting landfill spaces, soaring energy prices and growing concerns for air pollution, there is increasingly wide recognition for waste incineration or waste-to-energy (WTE) as the leading solution for waste management”, he said.
“But even where there is agreement on the choice of technology, there are also many ways that governments and the private sector can collaborate to build and operate such infrastructure,” he added.
The company’s projects in Singapore and Qatar show the potential of success of the public-private partnership model in which Keppel designs, builds and operates the plants, while other global projects showcase the viability of a more private-sector oriented approach.
For example, Keppel was part of a consortium that won a contract in 2012 to build a 372 tonnes-per-day waste-to-energy combined heat and power project in Bialystok, Poland. Keppel would contribute to the project by supplying its proprietary WTE technology, including its air-cooled grate and vertical boiler.
“When completed, the plant will process approximately 120,000 tons of waste per year, reducing the amount of municipal waste sent to the landfill site from over 90 per cent to about 12 per cent”, revealed Goh.
The facility would also generate 8.6 megawatts (MW) of electricity in the summer; during winter, the project would supply 17.5 MW of thermal energy to the Bialystok’s district heating and generate 6 MW of electricity to the grid.
In Asia, Keppel Seghers’ in-house technologies are also being supplied for the expansion of an existing WTE plant in Shenzhen, China. The technology will enable the facility to add 3,000 tonnes to its waste treatment capacity, elevating it to the status of the largest WTE plant in China.
“In China, the competition for lower cost construction is intense, but the demand for our proven technology and dependable guarantee remains high”, Goh said. “So we participate by designing and providing critical components for the plant. This model has proven popular and we are a leading provider of imported WTE technology in China, with some 19 projects implemented or under implementation”.
While the company’s international profile and portfolio of projects has yielded much success, Goh emphasised the ever-present need for collaboration to develop better solutions, and identified events like CESS and WasteMET Asia as potent avenues to do so.
“Factors like waste profile and transportation networks can influence the choice of solutions for each city, so CESS provides a valuable platform for governments and industry players to pool their knowledge to come up with better solutions to the worldwide problem of waste management”, said Goh.
He continued, “CESS is also an excellent platform for industry players to find and speak with each other about the technologies available, models of project participation and financing”.
“CESS 2014 will be a major event on the global calendar of waste management, and we look forward to tapping on the multitude of opportunities that it offer”, he added.
For more information on the exhibition, conference and site visits in store at the upcoming WasteMET Asia 2014, visit WasteMETAsia.sg.
