Biomass

Babcock & Wilcox supplying $35M in waste-to-energy equipment for Greenland district heating projects
Babcock & Wilcox supplying $35M in waste-to-energy equipment for Greenland district heating projects
(Illustration courtesy B&W)

The renewables segment of power plant equipment maker Babcock & Wilcox has been contracted to provide and install combustion, boiler and feeder systems for a pair of municipal waste-to-energy facilities in Greenland.

B&W Renewables was awarded the $35 million-plus contract by ESANI A/S, Greenland’s national waste management company. The facilities will be built near the cities of Nuuk and Sisimiut and provide district heating for residents and businesses.

Utilizing waste from existing landfills and convert it to energy reduce net methane emissions by a considerable degree. Climate experts say that methane is multiple times more harmful as a greenhouse gas than carbon emissions, according to reports.

“Waste-to-energy technologies are some of the most effective solutions for combatting climate change by reducing methane emissions from landfills and can be combined with carbon capture technologies to further reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” said Jimmy Morgan, B&W Chief Operating Officer. “Using B&W Renewable’s proven waste-to-energy and environmental technologies, operators can generate clean energy while reducing the amount of trash in landfills, protecting the air and water from emissions and runoff, and fighting climate change. B&W Renewable’s technology also provides a fully sustainable solution, now and in the future, to process municipal waste while helping to protect Greenland’s pristine and fragile arctic environment.”

Waste-to-energy projects will be part of the content offered at POWERGEN this January

B&W Renewable’s project scope includes supplying advanced Vølund DynaGrate combustion grates as well as boilers, waste feeding systems, a Vølund DynaDischarger ash extractor, GMAB flu gas cleaning systems and advanced control and monitoring systems.

The company also will install and commission the facilities. The waste-to-energy plants are scheduled for completion in 2023 and 2024.

B&W has participated in more than 100 waste-to-energy power projects worldwide. Many of those have been in Scandinavia, which is evidence of island nations concerned about land scarcity and costs for dumps, not to mention the environmental impacts.

In the U.S., the federal Energy Information Administration estimated that only about 12 percent of the nearly 300 million tons of municipal solid waste produced in the U.S. was burned in WTE plants. In 2019, 67 U.S. power plants generated about 13 billion kWh of electricity from burning nearly 25 million tons of combustible solid waste, according to the EIA.