Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
welcome to the wasting energy company in amsterdam
more than one and a half million tons of domestic and commercial waste is processed here
each year on six incineration lines
waste lorries bring in the waste
it is important for optimum incineration at the waste is off the uniform quality
this is why it is mixed in the waste bunker
large grippers then transfer the waste mixture into the hopers of the furnaces
the waste is incinerated on grates
This is a continuous process twenty four-hours-a-day seven days a week
temperatures range between one thousand and twelve hundred degrees celsius
this heat is not wasted
it turns water in the furnace walls into steam
this steam paces through through the three turbines at high pressure and
the turbines drive the generator
this generates enough electricity to powell one hundred and sixty one
thousand homes every year
after the electricity has been generated the residual heat is used to produce
heat for the city this is piped to the district heating system in amsterdam
and provides warmth for fifteen thousand homes
part of the waste is incombustible
this part which remains after incineration, we called bottom ash
technology developed together with delft university of technology is used to wash
and recover metals from the bottom ash
large amounts of iron and a non-ferrous metals
such as alluminium and copper are returned to the scrap metal trade for
recycling
the rest is cleaned further until clean sand and a stony granular remain
high-quality building materials which are used for example in concrete and
asphalt
after the incineration process the flue gases are cleaned
this is the longest parts of the whole production process
all done to ensure that almost nothing is released from the chimney
there are strict government regulations
admissions from the waste to energy plants remain well under the limit and
we continue to work on improving things
the flue gases are cleaned in a number of stages
we aim to recover useful products that each of the stages
first of all
flying particles are removed using an electric static filter placed behind the
furnace exhaust duct
this fly ash is used as a filling material in asphalt
dioxins heavy metals and other environmentally harmful materials are
then removed from the flue gases
Plaster and salt for de-icing are recovered in the process
and used in industries
the water necessary for the process is recycled in a closed system
the installation therefore produces no wastewater
a sensor in the chimney constantly measures the quality of the discharge
gases
the white plume of smoke is in fact nothing more than basically pure water vapour
only about one percent of everything that enters the waste to energy plant is
actually left over
this is completely unusable and is disposed off safely
ninety nine percent of the waste is converted into sustainable electricity
heat and useful building materials