by Hana Namrouqa | Dec 12, 2012 | 22:27
AMMAN — A study is under way on the rehabilitation of the Jordan Biogas Company’s (JBC) biogas plant, according to JBC Director General Omar Arabiyat.
The study, which will be supported and implemented by the German Development Bank (KfW), seeks to raise the generating capacity of the plant, which is located in the Ruseifa Landfill in Zarqa Governorate, 22km east of Amman.
“We aim to increase the generated electric power by drilling new gas wells, improving organic waste processing and operating the reactor for producing biogas,” Arabiyat told The Jordan Times.
A total of 850 cubic metres of gas is collected from 33 wells per hour at the landfill, he said, noting that the plant generates an average of 550 megawatts monthly.
The plant will be revamped because one section ceased operating seven years ago “due to improper sorting of waste from Amman. The plant needs 60 tonnes of organic waste daily to operate”, Arabiyat noted.
He added that the JBC limits the emission of biogas from the Ruseifa Landfill by collecting and using methane and carbon dioxide as well as using organic waste in anaerobic fermentation reactions to produce organic fertilisers, biogas and energy.
Jointly owned by the Greater Amman Municipality and the Central Electricity Generating Company, the biogas plant was established in the landfill in 1998 and started operating in June 2000.
The plant produced 8,005 megawatts in 2011 and 8,793 megawatts in 2010.
It reduces methane emissions by utilising solid waste for generating electricity and producing organic fertilisers.
The company sells biogas generated from the landfill to industrial countries as an outcome of Jordan signing the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in 1992 and the Kyoto Protocol.
The protocol allows industrialised countries with a greenhouse gas reduction commitment to invest in emission-reducing projects in developing countries.
http://jordantimes.com/biogas-plant-to-be-revamped