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Imagine standing in the middle of a soccer field full of boxes stacked to an average
man’s height. Now imagine this field surrounded by 300 similarly filled
soccer fields. NOW replace all the boxes with rubbish. That’s 2.56 million tonnes
of refuse, the amount Singaporeans sent to their four waste-to-energy plants (for
incineration) and landfill (for non-incinerable refuse) in 2006! Amazingly, this is
after an almost equivalent amount of refuse had been sent for recycling! |
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Last year, a total of 2.56 million tonnes of waste was disposed of at the refuse
disposal facilities. Approximately 2.33 million tonnes or 90.8% was incinerated while
the remainder went to the Semakau Landfill.
The provision of waste collection and disposal services in Singapore is so seamless
that many are not aware of the vast investment in a process that transforms huge
volumes of rubbish into inert ash. Most of the time, we take this for granted.
Today, NEA operates four waste-to-energy plants (WTEPs) with a combined incineration
capacity of 8,200 tonnes per day and the Semakau Landfill. These disposal facilities are
ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 certified, testifying to their high standards.
Without these WTEPs, a landfill the size of 300 soccer fields would need to be
set aside every year for our waste! With incineration, supported by other waste
minimisation and recycling measures, we can extend the life of our only landfill
beyond 2040. |
Watt’s Up With Waste
Work on Singapore’s fifth waste-to-energy
plant, which is capable of producing
20MW of green electricity from solid
waste, is progressing smoothly. Following
the groundbreaking ceremony in October
2006, piling work for this design-buildown-
operate project by Keppel Seghers
was completed in mid-April 2007.
While the main focus of incineration is
volume reduction, each plant is also
equipped with energy recovery features,
hence the term ‘waste-to-energy plants’.
Two to three per cent of Singapore’s
electricity needs, or 954,237MWh,
was generated from waste in 2006.
 This means a corresponding reduction
in the amount of electricity that would
otherwise have to be generated using
fossil fuel at the power stations, reducing
the resultant emissions.
Our Semakau Landfill continues to be
a magnet for both local and foreign
visitors. In 2006, it hosted 953 visitors
from four interest groups who enjoyed
activities ranging from inter-tidal walks
to bird watching to sport fishing and
even stargazing!
In addition, close to 6,000 foreign and
local visitors were there to learn more
about waste management in Singapore. |
Injecting Green Innovation
NEA has harnessed innovation
in a bid to operate its assets
more efficiently and cleanly. Two
notable green innovations that
have taken place at the WTEPs
are the completion of the new flue
gas treatment plant at the Tuas
plant and the use of the Six Sigma
methodology to reduce electricity
consumption at the Senoko plant.
The construction of the additional
flue gas treatment plant at Tuas
was completed at a cost of
$32 million. It also features a series
of state-of-the-art honeycombed
catalyst elements that break down
gaseous dioxins in the flue gas
into carbon dioxide and water
vapour. This addition augments
the existing advanced air pollution
control equipment at the plant
such as dry lime reactors and
electrostatic precipitators.
At Senoko, the staff formed a
Six Sigma team to systematically
reduce the amount of electricity
consumed in-house.
The team identified seven major
groups of electrical equipment
for optimisation. After a series of
fine-tuning, energy consumption
was reduced to the point where the
plant saw its amount of electricity
exported jump by about 8.9 million
kWh per annum, or $740,000 at
prevailing prices at that point. |
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Five Facts About
Our WTEPs |
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1. NEA’s incineration plants are not just“rubbish burning facilities”. Our plants are
sophisticated waste-to-energy facilities: they
capture the energy embedded in materials
like paper, leather, plastics, rubber, wood
scraps and food scraps, and use the energy to
generate electricity.
2. The incineration process that recovers
energy for electricity production helps
reduce global warming by eliminating the
production of methane. If rubbish is allowed
to decompose in landfills, significant amounts
of methane will be generated. Methane has a
global warming potential over 20 times that
of carbon dioxide.
3. The incineration process at our state-ofthe-
art facilities reduces waste volume by
90% and, in the process, converts the solid
wastes into carbon dioxide, water vapour and
inert ash.
4. The waste-to-energy process, alongside with
waste minimisation, makes it possible for the
Semakau Landfill to last beyond 2040 at the
current waste generation rate.
5. Singapore’s experience with incineration
started as far back as 1978 when Ulu Pandan
WTEP was first commissioned. Twenty-nine
years on, the plant is still operating well,
treating more than 292,000 tonnes of waste
in 2006 and generating about 60,000MWh of
electricity, which is enough to light up 960
blocks of HDB flats every day for a whole year. |
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Refuse Disposed from 1999 to 2006
(in thousands of tonnes) |
| Year |
Landfilled* |
Waste-to-Energy
Plants |
Total Refuse
Disposed |
| 1999 |
756.2 |
2,036.3 |
2,792.5 |
2000 |
357 |
2,440.2 |
2,797.2 |
| 2001 |
251.3 |
2,550.9 |
2,802.2 |
2002 |
204.3 |
2,421.3 |
2,625.6 |
| 2003 |
193.8 |
2,311.2 |
2,505.0 |
2004 |
219.6 |
2,263.0 |
2,482.6 |
| 2005 |
270.1 |
2,278.6 |
2,548.7 |
2006 |
234.5 |
2,329.1 |
2,563.6 |
*waste landfilled includes non-incinerable wastes such as
construction and demolition waste, used slag and treated
sludge, and excludes incineration ash generated from waste
disposed through incineration. |
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