Displaying items by tag: sewage sludge

Ireland: A court has ruled that the Irish government need not pay legal costs for Environmental Trust Ireland president Michelle Hayes' challenge against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in mid-2022. Hayes unsuccessfully sued the EPA for issuing Irish Cement with a licence to use alternative fuel (AF) at its Limerick cement plant in May 2021. The AF will comprise up to 90,000t/yr of waste tyres, biomass and/or mining by-products.

At the costs hearing, the court noted that Hayes had already caused the EPA to incur 'very significant' legal costs. The court said that Hayes 'sought to have the taxpayer pay even more.' It added that, as a solicitor at Hayes Solicitors Limerick, which represented her in her unsuccessful challenge, Hayes stood to effectively benefit from any recuperated costs. The court concluded "It would mean that legal practitioners like herself are paid by the taxpayer for bringing environmental litigation which is unmeritorious."

South Korea: SK Ecoplant is at the centre of an initiative in partnership with the city administration of Seoul to co-process 110,000t/yr of sewage sludge from the city as alternative fuel (AF) for cement production. AJU News has reported that the waste management company expects the sludge to fuel 150,000t/yr of local cement production under the initiative.

Seoul generates 200,000t/yr of sewage sludge.

Canada: The Capital Regional District (CRD) in British Colombia has signed a memorandum of understanding with Ḱenes Transportation, a Wsáneć First Nations partnership company, to contract the transportation of biomass produced at a sewage treatment unit at Hartland Landfill to Lafarge Canada’s Richmond cement plant. The dehydrated biofuel made from treated wastewater is then coprocessed as an alternative fuel at the integrated cement plant. The agreement will last up to five years while the CRD develops long term plans for the biosolids, according to the Times Colonist newspaper.

Algeria: La Société des Ciments de Tébessa has commissioned a sewage treatment unit to provide alternative fuels for its plant, according to the Algeria Press Service. The company operates a 0.5Mt/yr plant at Elma Labiod in Tébessa Province.

China: Anhui Conch’s Xing'an cement plant in Guangxi region has commissioned a municipal sold waste (MSW) project. The project was started in late 2017 and it has had investment of US$19m. It is intended to process 100,000t/yr of MSW and 49,500t/yr of sewage.

Algeria: Groupe des Ciments d’Algérie (GICA) has started testing processing waste-derived fuels at its Meftah cement plant. The pilot project will handle waste fuels and sewage sludge, according to the Algeria Press Service. Testing started in October 2017 and it will continue until 2021 before the plant starts to use alternative fuels commercially. The company also hopes to spread the use of alternative fuels to other cement plants in the country following the pilot stage. The plant is operated by Société des ciments de la Mitidja (SCMI-Meftah), a subsidiary of GICA.

Germany: Schwenk Zement is planning to build a 47 metre high sewage sludge silo at its Allmendingen cement plant. It also wants to build a sewage sludge storage facilty with a capacity of 9600m³, according to the Schwäbische Zeitung newspaper. It intends to use the sludge as an alternative fuel for its kiln. Sludge will be delivered from Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria.