Smart and responsible use of municipal waste
12,000 tons of unrecyclable waste is enough to produce heat for 3,000 households, and electricity for 500 flats or houses. A waste-to-energy facility is used to convert waste that would otherwise end up in landfills. Our ENETIQA group operates a WtE facility in Liberec with a capacity of 96,000 tons of waste per year. We are also preparing projects with lower capacity for smaller cities.
Waste-to-energy facilities ecologically process municipal waste that can no longer be recycled. They can also burn part of the sludge from wastewater treatment facilities.
For regional and district cities, they represent a technology that meets all the requirements of the new waste legislation (e.g. the landfill ban from 2030), and increases their independence from external energy supplies.
In addition, WtE is an important part of the circular economy - it uses the energy contained in waste to produce heat and electricity. At the same time, it contributes to the protection of the environment and the fulfilment of the commitment to climate neutrality: it replaces the combustion of primary energy raw materials, mainly coal and gas.
Gentle operation with minimal impact on the environment is key for a WtE facility. This is also why these facilities are growing and operating successfully throughout Europe, including city centres. Even for smaller cities in the Czech Republic, these facilities mean a way to cleaner air: central heat supply leads to a reduction in the number of local heating plants, which are a significant source of dioxins.
According to CENIA, the Czech Environmental Information Agency, 5.8 million tons of municipal waste is produced in the Czech Republic every year. 38% is recycled. At least 2.8 million tons of waste will end up in landfills by 2030, endangering groundwater and air quality. After 2030, the landfilling of municipal waste will be prohibited by law.
Why consider a WtE facility for your city as well?
- A WtE facility represents a local and at the same time final solution to the problem faced by cities of how to dispose of non-recyclable municipal waste after the ban on its landfill in 2030.
- A WtE facility is a guarantee that the management of the city or municipality will avoid difficulties in case of a further tightening of waste legislation. The use of waste as a secondary fuel will remain a highly environmentally friendly way of disposing of it.
- A WtE facility deals with the sharp increase in the cost of landfilling waste if the city fails to achieve a high degree of sorting, which the new waste legislation makes a condition for the so-called "sorting discount". However, this sorting discount will continuously decrease and end completely after 2030, after which the ban on landfilling municipal waste will also come into force.
- A WtE facility reduces the growth in costs for municipal waste disposal: the costs of waste disposal (increasing over time) to remote landfills or to a large regional incinerator will thus be eliminated .
- A WtE facility is a guarantee of stable and predictable prices for heat and electricity customers. The heat and electricity produced are independent of the prices of primary energy raw materials, as well as the effects of increasingly strict European legislation aimed at climate neutrality.
- Thanks to local cogeneration of heat and electricity, WtE facilities strengthen the energy security and self-sufficiency of cities, which is one of the Smart City pillars.
A WtE facility is also a solution for small and medium-sized cities. In view of of the extend of legislative preparation and duration of construction, it is high time to start preparation if it is to be a realistic alternative for waste disposal after 2030.
What can a WtE facility do for small and medium-sized cities?
- Capacity 1.46 tons per hour
- Power 4 MWt / 150 kWe
- Heat for 3,000 households
- Electricity for 500 households
- Heating power of waste 8 - 15 MJ / kg
Frequently asked questions about WtE facility operation
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Subsidy entitlements can be drawn on WtE facilities. We will be happy to help you with their selection and arrangement.
- There are currently four similar facilities in operation in the Czech Republic. One of them is ENETIQA group's TERMIZO in Liberec.
- In order for a WtE facility to work as efficiently, ecologically and economically as possible, it is necessary for the city to have a functioning central heating system.
- Thanks to modern WtE facility cleaning technology, it safely meets the strictest emission limits in the Czech Republic.
- For example, the WtE facility in Liberec separates more than 1,000 tons of iron (ferromagnetic) waste from slag (mixtures of slag and fly ash) per year for further recycling.
- The mentioned slag as waste from a WtE facility, under the highest safety measures and certification, replaces the use of primary materials such as gravel and macadam in the construction and reclamation of landfills.
- A WtE facility also sorts tons of toxic metals from waste, which are converted into stable and insoluble forms, and transferred to hazardous waste landfills in the form of a stabilized filter cake. This eliminates groundwater contamination for future generations.
Our subsidiary TERMIZO converts 96,000 tons of waste into useful energy every year. This produces heat for more than 13,000 households, and supplies 13 GWh of electricity to the public grid, which is the annual consumption of about 3,000 households. It saves about 30 million m3 of natural gas or 30,000 tons of coal every year.
