DOHA - Qatar's first integrated Domestic Solid Waste Management Centre (DSWMC) and the four waste transfer stations to handle and treat domestic solid waste for the whole country, will become operational by next year.
The DSWMC, which is capable of treating 2,300 tonnes of mixed domestic solid waste per day, is being set up on an area of 300 ha, close to Mesaieed. The plant can also treat an estimated 5,000 tonnes of construction and demolition waste daily.
Keppel Seghers, the environmental engineering division of the Singapore-based Keppel Corporation Ltd, is carrying out the QR3.9bn project for Qatar. Keppel will operate the DSWMC for 20 years.
Once the plant becomes operational, commercial and household waste in the country will be collected and transported by collecting trucks to four new transfer stations in addition to the existing one. After compaction and reloading on to heavy load trucks, the waste will be sent to the waste management centre. The Centre is equipped with separation and recycling facilities, waste to energy general plant, composting facility, engineered solid waste landfill, construction and demolition waste recycling.
The integrated waste treatment plant is designed to maximize recovery of resources and energy from waste by installing state of the art technologies for separation and recycling, waste to energy and composting technologies.
The Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Agriculture (MMAA) has already identified the sites for the Transfer Stations after taking into account the collection facilities, traffic flow, transportation facility and the environmental conditions of the surrounding areas.
Based on Keppel Seghers' own Dano Drum technology, the plant is a reliable solution for mechanical pre-treatment and separation of unsorted municipal solid waste. The four drums, each with a capacity of 20 tones per hour, will separate the organic waste from the inorganic and oversized waste fraction, containing metals, glass and plastics. The organic-rich fraction goes to the composting area, where small pieces of metals will be removed from it by means of magnets. The energy-rich fraction will go through a recycling state before being incinerated in the Keppel Seghers' waste-to-energy plant to generate electricity.
The waste-to-energy plant is the heart of the integrated waste treatment facility. The installation consists of three incineration lines, each with a daily capacity of 504 tonnes per day of refuse as fuel. The storage capacity at the refuse bunker allows continuous operation of the Waste-to-energy plant. Inorganic waste that cannot be recovered or incinerated will be sent to an engineered landfill facility that will also be the final destination of ashes produced during combustion of the waste.
The landfill has been designed to the best international practices by using an impermeable bottom liner and will ensure a clean and environmental friendly disposal of inorganic waste.
© The Peninsula 2008
