Landfill to Become Energy Power Plant
By Bae Ji-sook
Staff Reporter
The government Thursday said it would transform a large-scale landfill in the metropolitan area into a plant producing renewable energy such as bio-diesel or solar power by 2020.
According to the plan, the 19 million-square-meter metropolitan landfill on the outskirts of Incheon will turn into a complex of power plants using waste, solar power and other types of energy, the Ministry of Environment said. The production of bio diesel from sunflowers and rapeseed flowers and the extraction of bio ethanol from poplars are being planned. The landfill, about seven times the size of Yeoido, is known as the world's largest, according to the ministry.
The government will invest a total of 1.7 trillion won ($1.5 billion) into the project, with funds coming from central and local government budgets and the private sector. It is expected to create about 9,000 new jobs.
There is already a landfill power plant there capturing heat from buried waste and converting it into electricity and other forms of energy, ministry official Choi Ki-hyung said.
A 1.1 million-square-meter plot of land will turn into a 30-megawatt solar power plant while facilities to turn residential waste into solidified fuel will be established by 2014. The facility is expected to produce 2,000 tons of fuel a day, of which 600 tons will be reused at another 30-megawatt fuel power plant.
Everything could become an energy resource at the complex. Its food waste and sewage could produce heat once combined with methane. About 1,000 tons of food waste and as many cubic meters of water will be managed through the facility.
The landfill takes care of about 21 million residents of Seoul and adjacent areas. About 48 percent of its waste comes from Seoul while Incheon and other Gyeonggi Provincial areas account for 17 percent and 35 percent, respectively.