Personal reminiscences from
Karel Procházka project manager
The waste to energy (in slang: W2E) in .A.S.A. is
nothing new…
I can remember well my first visit to Halbenrain,
Austria, in 1990 - inside the big hall the new green
Jenbacher, with some 520 kW performance, had
been installed. The energy was used for the waste
water cleaning process, in the next hall a new
waste water treatment plant had been installed;
with the surplus of energy produced by the CHP
(combined heat and power) unit being delivered
to the public grid.
So, after the commencement of operations at our
landfill Ďáblice, in Prague, I didn’t waste any time
in preparing the “.A.S.A. Energy” project as well,
including trafo-station and connection to the grid.
Everything was positive regarding gas production
and usage. The only obstacle was how to actually
sell the energy... The programs for the support of
alternative energy production were not currently
active at that time.
The energy project itself was quite costly,
2 Million €’s of investment was necessary in this
case. But similar to other .A.S.A. landfills later
on, we had firstly invested in the degas station,
and the flair for burning it in in order to keep the
gas safely under control. Then we collected data
regarding the amount and quality of the gas, in
relation to operating the gas-field. We burned
the gas. It was interesting to see the flair in the
night…. Like a rocket, only inverted.
The quality and quantity of gas produced began
to increase. So it was decided that we would sell
the energy potential in the gas to a partner. This
contract-partner installed 2 big (2x1.026 kWe)
and later a smaller CHP-unit with some 240
kWe to produce energy (electricity & heating)
for our area, in particuar the administration
building. During the winter, another interesting
phenomenon in Ďáblice occurred – all of our
windows (in AB) were open (even on days when
it reached -20°C outside) we had had so much
excess heat-energy and free of charge!
After some time we prepared variants - how
to use the full potential of the heat in the most
effective way. Soon our partners had connected
the old Prague landfill’s degassing (in Chabry
2 km away) to the new .A.S.A. landfill Ďáblice.
We wanted to use the heating potential as well,
not only produce electricity. The additional
heating power expected was about 3-4 MW. So,
they installed a 7 km long underground pipeline
to Letňany, delivering gas there and moving
the machinery therein. There, it was possible
to utilize both electricity and heat-power for
industry, houses and flats. Interestingly, the
machinery (pumps) moving the landfill gas to
Letňany are driven by power from landfill gas
engines, as well.
– KP, RT
HAVE YOU EVER KNOWN THAT FCC environment CEE...?
Installations at landfills (2015)
and landfill gas utilization (2014)
Installations, as you can see, don‘t only have a positive effect
on the environment!
CHP unit Úholičky, CZ, 520 kW
Waukesha, prod.capacity 3.500
MWh/year
15
