Energy from Waste
The Island's combustible solid waste is incinerated at the Bellozanne Energy from Waste plant. The Energy from Waste plant presently processes in excess of 80,000 tonnes of non inert waste per year.
Approximately half of this waste is prutrescible waste (household dustbin) and the other half is shredded bulky waste (carpets, mattresses, old furniture etc.).
In basic terms, an Energy from Waste plant burns rubbish and uses the heat from the fire to generate steam. This steam is then used to drive a turbine which generates electricity. The electricity generated at the Bellozanne plant is used to power the Waste Water Treatment plant and the excess electricity is sold to the Jersey Electricity company. Whilst this process is regarded as a recovery process under the waste hierarchy the fundamental advantage for the Island is the exceptional volume reduction offered by an EfW system. In many countries waste is compacted into a landfill site and buried. Apart from the fact that landfilling putrescible waste is less preferable in environmental terms than recovery, Jersey simply does not have the space for a non inert landfill site.
The present Energy from Waste plant was commissioned in 1979 and is a two stream Martin Grate system, which, at the time was the best available technology. Due to the rapid increase in waste production during the 1980’s the plant was extended and a Von Roll Grate system was added. This Von Roll grate represented the next generation of incinerator technology. The plant runs 24 hours a day and 365 days of the year and is managed and operated by 30 staff on a rotating shift basis. As the Energy from Waste plant is constantly manned the operators also undertake the duties of the ministry’s out of hours call centre. From here they remotely monitor the waste water treatment works and the Island wide sewage pumping station network.
The Island’s waste production has continued to grow and for the last five years the plant has struggled to process the incoming waste.
The Energy from Waste plant is old and can no longer reliably serve the Island. The whole concept of how we generate and treat our waste needs to be changed. These issues have been extensively reviewed and solutions have been proposed in the Solid Waste Strategy which was agreed by The States of Jersey in June 2005.
To download the Solid Waste Strategy click the following link:
WasteStrategyVer5Finalweb.pdf
Click here to find out more about the Proposed New Energy from Waste Facility
Clinical Waste
The Island's clinical waste is processed in a small specialist incineration plant. Clinical waste is waste produced by the hospitals, private surgeries and veterinary practices. A separate incinerator is required because clinical waste is potentially more dangerous than household refuse and must be incinerated at a higher temperature to ensure that any hazardous biological substances are completely destroyed.The clinical waste is accepted in specialist containers and processed in a controlled manner. The incinerator can process 200kg of waste per hour and runs throughout the week to keep up with the incoming waste.
Sludge
The Solid Waste section processes and distributes the sludge from the Waste Water Treatment works. In the past, treated sludge was spread to land and dried sludge was incinerated. During 2005 this changed significantly and sludge is no longer incinerated or put on land in a liquid form. Every year the waste water treatment works produces between 70,000 and 80,000 tonnes of digested sewage sludge. This sewage sludge can be further processed to become a valuable resource for the agricultural industry.These sludge treatment processes are undertaken by a group of four technicians working on a shift basis who also operate the clinical waste incinerator.
There are two methods in which digested sewage sludge is further treated.
Sludge Drying
The sludge is fed into the sludge drying plant where it is dewatered and heated to produce a dry pelletised sludge. The sludge drying plant is a relatively complicated plant which requires skilled operators to run it. The heat is produced by burning methane from the sludge digester plant in a specially converted boiler. These sludge pellets produced are virtually odourless and classed as advanced thermally treated. The pelletised sludge is taken to agricultural land spread in pre-prescribed quantities when it is safe to do so. The spreading of this product offsets some of the need to import fertilisers.
Sludge Dewatering
Sludge is passed through a high speed centrifuge and dewatered until it has the consistency of a damp cake. The sludge is chemically treated to ensure that the product is classified as enhanced treated and has the required constituents for a useful soil enhancer. The treated sludge cake is then taken to agricultural land and ploughed in to the soil under specified conditions between crop rotations.
Abattoir
Whilst not completely a waste issue the abattoir and knackers yard are run by the Solid Waste section to provide a service to the livestock industry and to dispose of waste livestock.
The abattoir runs to meet the requirements of the livestock industry and is presently being upgraded to cope with the growing beef industry and the changes to the over thirty month scheme.
