Warsaw opens major waste-to-energy plant
Warsaw has opened a new waste-to-energy plant that will process nearly 30 percent of the city’s trash and turn it into electricity and heat.
Pixabay LicenseImage by Iva Balk from Pixabay
Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski officially inaugurated the facility last week, in the Targówek district, in the northeast of the city.
Known as the Warsaw Energy Production Plant, the installation is one of the largest industrial projects completed in Poland in recent years.
Trzaskowski said the plant cost more than PLN 1.5 billion (around EUR 360 million). He compared the expense to that of the Vistula Spit canal, a major national infrastructure project.
About one-third of Warsaw’s waste will now be converted into electricity and district heating, he said.
“This is the largest and most modern installation in Poland. It is environmentally friendly and safe,” the mayor added.
The project will also give the city greater influence over waste collection fees, he said.
The facility will process around 265,000 metric tons of waste annually. It is expected to generate about 100,000 megawatt-hours of electricity per year, enough for roughly 50,000 households, and 200,000 megawatt-hours of heat, covering the needs of around 30,000 homes.
More than 100 garbage trucks deliver over 1,000 tons of waste to the plant each working day. Vehicles entering the site pass through radiation detection gates and are weighed before unloading in a large enclosed hall.
Waste is stored in a concrete bunker measuring 110 meters by 15 meters, with a maximum storage capacity of some 5,500 tons, enough for about six days of continuous operation without new deliveries.
Plant director Sławomir Cięciara said two overhead cranes equipped with grapples move and mix the waste before feeding it into the boilers. Each grapple can lift up to eight tons at a time.
The plant mainly burns mixed municipal waste and shredded bulky waste to increase calorific value.
The combustion process begins with oil burners that raise the temperature above 850 degrees Celsius. Once started, the waste burns without additional fuel.
The heat produced turns water into high-pressure steam at around 400 degrees Celsius. The steam drives turbines that generate electricity and supplies heat exchangers connected to the city’s district heating network.
Cięciara said the plant uses three emission reduction systems. Urea is injected into flue gases in the boiler, lime slurry is added in an absorber, and activated carbon is introduced in a reactor before gases are released through the chimney.
As a result, total emissions are comparable to those of a single diesel truck, he said.
The plant, connected to the Stoen distribution system, feeds electricity directly into Warsaw’s power grid rather than to specific facilities.
Adam Chwieduk, head of the Municipal Cleaning Company, said the plant serves as a source for the entire system.
After combustion, the remaining slag is processed to recover ferrous and non-ferrous metals, which are sold to steel mills.
The remaining material is used in road construction and small-scale urban infrastructure.
The roof of the complex features 20,000 square meters of greenery, including native grasses, mosses and flowering plants, designed to support local biodiversity.
The site also includes a sorting facility that handles about 30,000 tons of segregated waste annually, including paper, plastics, and metals.
Materials suitable for recycling are sent onward, while the rest is directed to energy recovery.
(rt/gs)
Source: PAP
Radio Poland
