Several companies have expressed keen interest in developing waste-to-power projects in HCMC given the high potential in the sector, and this tendency is also aligned with the city’s vision to create favorable conditions for investors to recycle garbage to electricity and compost.

Solid waste piles up at Vietstar landfill. Several investors are weighing plans to develop waste-to-energy projects in HCMC

On July 10, a consortium of Hydraulic-Machine Co Ltd and HCMC Urban Environment Co Ltd proposed investing in a waste-to-energy plant at Go Cat Solid Waste Treatment Complex in Binh Tan District. The landfill has stopped receiving garbage for a long time, having stocked more than five million tons of waste.

A representative of the consortium said that the project was piloted by the end of 2016 and started generating power in April this year using Vietnamese equipment and technologies.

Waste is burned in incinerators without oxygen to power electric generators, and in the trial period, the investor burned some 10 tons of waste a day to generate over 7,000kWh to the grid. The consortium seeks to develop a project with a capacity of 20MW using 1,000 tons of garbage.

Apart from this consortium, others have also been proceeding with their plans to develop waste-to-power projects.

The Vietnam Waste Solutions (VWS), which mainly processes waste by burial method, will also invest in a compressed natural gas (CNG) technology to convert 2,000 tons of waste a day to electricity.

Tam Sinh Nghia Investment – Development JSC also plans to increase its capacity to 1,300 tons a day while Vietstar Company will recycle 1,200-1,800 tons of waste a day to produce both compost and electricity.

In addition, Tasco and Trisun Green Energy companies also want to invest in a waste-to-compost project and a large waste-to-energy plant with a capacity of 500 tons and 1,000 tons of trash a day respectively.

The HCMC Department of Natural Resources and Environment said that the city discharges about 8,300 tons of household waste a day and the amount can reach nearly 13,000 tons by 2025.

The city targets to decrease the amount of solid waste to be buried to 60% by 2020 and 20% by 2025 by encouraging enterprises to invest in advanced technologies to turn waste into power and compost.

The department expects that 70% of the garbage, equivalent to 9,000 tons discharged in the city a day, will be used to generate to power while another 1,500 tons, or some 11%, will be recycled into compost and the remaining 2,500 tons will be buried by 2025.

According to the calculation of experts, with the electricity price of 10.05 cents a kWh as stipulated in Decision No. 31/2014/QD-TTg of the Prime Minister on supporting the development of power generation projects using solid waste in Vietnam, a plant treating 1,000 tons of garbage a day can fetch VND280 billion (US$12.36 million) per year after deducting operation costs of VND240 billion. Thus, investors can recover investment capital after nearly 14 years.

SGT