Khmelnytskyi Prepared to Attract Private Investments for Reconstructing its Solid Municipal Waste Landfill and Constructing a Power Plant to Run on Landfill Gas
The project involves a great scope of work, including the installation of hi-tech equipment. A system for collecting and preprocessing landfill gas for utilization will include wells, pipelines, collectors, and moisture and solids separators. A gas metering system will ensure the metering of the volumetric consumption of the biogas supplied to generators, its pressure, temperature, chemical composition, and keep account of those parameters, Biogas without pretreatment is used in piston motor-generator sets employing internal combustion engines, with electricity supplied to the grid via a transformer substation. The use of landfill gas will reduce the amount of toxic (including cancerous) organic compounds (aromatic hydrocarbons, formaldehyde, dioxins etc.) emitted into the ambient air from the landfill surface.
Based on the Preliminary Feasibility Study, the optimal power rating of the generating equipment using gas extraction from the SMW landfill is 1000kW. The proposed modular design of the generator units will make it possible to extend generating power in proportion to the number and power rating of individual units. Later on, depending on the rate of biogas depletion in the landfill body, some of the generator modules can be dismantled and moved to other landfills. The project also envisages the reinforcement of the SMW landfill slopes (deposited solid municipal waste).
The project is potentially attractive for investors, as according to preliminary estimates, the required project investment amount is about UAH 67.2 million, and the simple payback period for the landfill gas collection and utilization system is less than three years.
The city government plans to announce a tender this year to select a concessioner for implementing this project based on a Public Private Partnership arrangement. This will be one of the first such projects in Ukraine to be implemented with attracted private investments.