Power from waste |
The past and future of waste to energy: a Kanadevia Inova perspective
It may surprise many that today’s waste to energy (WtE) facilities (also known as energy from waste, energy recovery or incineration plants) are often overlooked in terms of their design excellence, cutting edge technological innovation and the overall environmental benefits they are delivering for communities around the world. But this is an ongoing engineering journey at Kanadevia Inova (previously Hitachi Zosen Inova), with over 90 years in the pursuit of innovation and excellence, and still dedicated to evolving and improving plant design. Put simply, the challenge is ‘how can we make each and every plant component work more effectively, efficiently, and with greater respect to the environment and limited global resources?’
David Spencer Kanadevia Inova
The basic modus operandi for all advanced WtE plants according to the United States Environmental Protection Agency is the ‘conversion of non-recyclable waste materials into usable heat, electricity, or fuel through a variety of processes.’
Collectively, WtE facilities comprise a range of technologies that generate useable forms of energy and byproduct materials from non-recyclable, ‘residual’*, waste produced by humankind that would otherwise be disposed of in landfill sites.
As we will explore, the landfilling of waste has been widely practised over many millennia, but in recent decades we now recognise landfill sites as a major source of damaging greenhouse gases such as methane, nitrogen and carbon dioxide – not to mention the loss of wildlife habitats and the production of landfill leachate, which often damages vital water courses.
As a result, the burying of commercial, household and hazardous wastes is broadly understood to be the least sustainable among modern waste management choices.
For over 90 years Kanadevia Inova has earned its place as a global leader in engineering and WtE advancement, with a strong track record in delivery of turnkey plants and system solutions for thermal, biological and power to gas facilities. The company was founded in 1933 in Switzerland as L. von Roll Aktiengesellschaft, later known as Von Roll Inova, and in 2010 became part of the Hitachi Zosen Corporation, changing its name to Hitachi Zosen Inova. The Switzerland-based multinational Kanadevia Inova has over 1600 WtE reference projects globally, which it has built and maintains/ operates, a number that continues to grow – even as you read this article.
An early example of a Von Roll Inova waste to energy plant, Dordrecht, Netherlands (1939)
Burgeoning waste growth, a global problem needing local solutions
To understand the evolution of waste-to-energy over time, we have to identify the way people, society and environmental needs continue to change and, in turn, how these have influenced the way we have treated, and will continue to treat, non-recyclable wastes into the future. With an overview of how our forebears treated their wastes, we can better understand the origins and development of WtE treatment technology.
Since the first industrial revolution in the 17th and 18th centuries, the global population has burgeoned, with towns and cities needing to grow to accommodate ever expanding and urbanising populations.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, we can simultaneously chart the corresponding growth in the wastes produced per capita over time; together with an increasing volume of waste types produced and discarded over the ensuing centuries. Most countries and populations have systematically dumped industrial and household
* Residual waste is the volume of non-recyclable waste that remains after recycling, composting or other waste reduction processes have taken place. 16 | October 2024|
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