The government has published two important documents that are related to the environment recently, one on tackling climate change, and the other an update of Malta’s solid waste management strategy.
The crux of these two issues is that Malta must cut emissions and reduce the amount of waste that goes into landfills. To cut emissions, Malta, quite simply needs to adopt more green energy making measures and to try and scale back on demand too.
The EU is issuing various directives related to both fields and what is good news for Malta is that creating energy from waste has been classified as an alternative energy source.
The primary source of creating energy from waste with today’s technology is through incineration. The old idea of incineration must be wiped from people’s minds. The new incinerator at Marsa, which will soon power itself, is a clear example of how clean an energy source this can be.
The incinerators that used to be in place at St Luke’s and the Marsa Abattoir were not incinerators at all, merely huge bonfires enclosed in a chimney with no emission control whatsoever.
The new breed of incinerators cannot be more different. For starters, they are modern and fully automated. Their by-products are ash tablets and steam. The ash itself is disposed of in landfills, but the smoke that results from the burning process is superheated and cooled and filtered through clay muslin, leaving only steam as the majority by-product. This steam is then used to spin a turbine that generates electricity which will eventually lead to the system being totally self-sufficient for power.
There are plans for a new incinerator to be sited in Delimara, close to the Enemalta power station. It will basically be powered by... rubbish, anything that burns and gives off energy, according to the experts.
Buzzwords such as high calorific value fuel (which is what waste will be called in future) are being used, and this essentially means anything that catches fire quite easily. This includes paper, plastic, cardboard, cotton and many other materials. The same technology as that at Marsa will be employed and the proximity of the plant to the power station will ensure efficient energy transfer. Moreover, the prevailing wind is seawards, ensuring that the few emissions that there are do not come back to hover and settle over the south of Malta.
Another technology which has recently been introduced is bio-digestion of organic waste. Anything that can be broken down by bacteria is mulched and put into a big tank where it is essentially digested. The by-product is methane gas which is clean burning and produces energy when used to power a steam turbine.
This goes hand in hand with plans to build a bigger tank to take animal excrement in Gozo. This has an even higher methane yield and will also help to protect the water table as not as much manure will be spread on the fields, leading to contamination. Energy generation from human sewage is also being tackled by the Water Services Corporation and works similarly to the animal waste digestion process. The government’s target is to have five per cent of power produced from all waste.
It is clear, Malta cannot afford any huge landfills to dispose of its waste. With land at a premium, it is also difficult to have sites for wind farms. But it is not a fast track solution. It is new technology to us and we have to see that it all goes hand in hand with other measures, such as the cable to the European grid, wind farms, PV and solar paneling, recycling and more.
Malta should adapt these technologies to our realities and perhaps in that way we can have research and development on a micro level, rather than relying on foreign technology alone. In the Industrial Revolution, people only believed in the power of steam, saying nothing could take its place and that coal would be the fuel for ever. Right now we are dependent on oil, and that is merely a hundred or so years later. The possibilities are endless, we merely need to change tack while keeping an open mind and being ready to respond.