Shanghai Jiangqiao Municipal Solid Waste Incineration Plant Site Visit
- Shanghai Jiangqiao Municipal Solid Waste Incineration Plant
Jiangqiao Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) Incineration Plant is one of the many incineration facilities in China that has become a target of public opposition in recent years. I took a look inside to see for myself what all the controversy is about. Check out what, besides a lost appetite, that visit produced.
Jiangqiao MSW Incineration Plant is situated in Jiading district, Shanghai. Using total investment of roughly USD 110 million, Jiangqiao was constructed in 1999, began operating in 2005, and was upgraded in 2006. Its expected lifespan is 20 years. Jiangqiao is a joint-venture operation between Shanghai Environmental Group (a Shanghai Chengtou subsidiary) and Veolia Environmental Services.
Jiangqiao treats MSW from three of Shanghai’s 14 districts: Putuo, Changning, and Jing’an districts. Jiangqiao is equipped with imported mechanical grate incinerator technology designed for waste with low combustibility and high water content, both typical traits of Chinese MSW. Jiangqiao’s three incinerators are each capable of treating 500 metric tons per day (t/d) of MSW. Jiangqiao’s 1,500 t/d MSW treatment capacity allows it to handle roughly 8% of the MSW generated each day in Shanghai. This facility is currently the largest incineration plant in China, but the 3,000 t/d-capacity Laogang incineration facility under construction in Pudong will take over this title once it begins operations, within the next year or two.
Jiangqiao reduces waste by 80-85%, meaning that for every ton of waste that comes in, 15-20% by volume is turned into slag, which is subsequently landfilled.
Jiangqiao is outfitted with two 12 MW turbine generators. Annually, the plant generates about 140 million kWh of electricity, which equals the annual electricity consumption of roughly 78,000 Shanghai households.
Garbage. Claw. Win a Prize!
MSW is stored here for 2-3 days while it undergoes pre-treatment. During this time, leachate (think of the gross liquid that you sometimes find at the bottom of your kitchen garbage can) is removed, so that the MSW is more suitable for combustion.
The leachate from here is treated in an adjacent state-of-the-art wastewater treatment plant and separated out into liquids and solids. The treated liquid goes back into the municipal pipe network, and the solid sludge — believe it or not — gets reunited with the garbage in the incinerator.
Jiangqiao Control Room
Turbine Generator Room
- Real-time Emissions Screen
Flue gas produced during incineration is treated using a three-part, fancy pants wet cleaning system with a fabric filter, acid washer and activated carbon filter. Additional equipment has been installed to deal with NOx, dioxins and furans — the nastiest by-products formed during combustion.
Outside the facility the plant has a real-time emissions reporting screen for the public to see. This is standard practice for large incineration facilities in China, and required by law. The screen above shows emissions well within Chinese government standards. Indeed, plant operators report that Jiangqiao emissions comply with EU 1992 standards, more stringent than those in China.
The flue gas system seems to me to be doing what it was designed to do. However, not everyone is convinced.
In the first few years of operation, residents living near the plant — though it is outside of downtown, Jiangqiao is located in a still rather densely settled area of Shanghai — complained of odor problems. Odor emanating from a waste treatment plant is not unusual; nor is the tension it often causes between plant operators or city officials and neighboring communities.
In April, 2009, residents protested a planned expansion that would add another incinerator, thereby increasing the plant’s treatment capability to 2,000 t/d so that it could also treat MSW from Shanghai’s Zhabei, Minhang and Jiading districts. By some sources hundreds of people marched in the vicinity, with dozens gathering in front of the facility’s gate to unfurl a banner that read “Unite and Take a Stand Against Environmental Degradation.”
This demonstration took place around the same time that concerned residents in other parts of China publicly expressed similar opposition to incineration facilities, new and existing.
Jiangqiao expansion plans stalled later that year, though it is unclear what role exactly the public push back played in the delays.
Since 2009, the public outcries have died out some, but have not completely gone away. Communities are becoming increasingly vigilant of government infrastructure plans and demanding community hearings where their concerns will not only be heard, but also heeded. Non-profit organizations like Green Beagle are also taking action, with plans in the works to conduct unofficial air quality testing for key contaminants in areas nearby incineration facilities throughout China.
Odor complaints aside, citizens living near Jiangqiao have not presented any evidence that the plant has had a negative environmental impact. On the other hand, emissions reporting on the level of pollutants (like dioxin) the plant generates have been made available to the public on only a very limited basis, with the credibility of such reporting often in doubt.
As long as transparent and credible incineration emissions data remains elusive in China, it is both likely and understandable that the public will continue to fear the environmental degradation of incinerators, be it real or perceived.