2023-05-25 14:00:55
At the landfill site near Kalenberg, electricity is to be generated from rotting municipal waste for at least another seven years.
Mechernich-Strempt (lk). From 1981 to 2005, the landfill in the former lead ore mine “Virginia” between Strempt and Kalenberg was a dumping and storage site for the administrative district of Cologne and parts of Rhineland-Palatinate.
Since the millions of cubic meters of rotting municipal waste release gases, the district administration built a gas engine power plant at the end of the 1980s in addition to a leachate treatment plant at the access road to the landfill. The gases are becoming less and so only two of the original six gas turbines are still running and feeding electricity into the e-regio grid.
A planned upgrade might even extend power generation into 2030. Currently, 500 cubic meters of landfill gas per hour are burned to generate electricity, in 2017 it was 650, in the early days 1500 cubic meters per hour, according to Guido Schmitz, head of the civil engineering and waste department at the district of Euskirchen.
The aim is to hand over the mountain of rubbish, which is not really dormant under the earth’s surface, to posterity with as few emissions as possible.
According to the district, the district is investing around 2.8 million euros in order to be able to extract as much gas as possible in the future and to reduce emissions from the landfill. The Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection is paying 2.16 million euros. Among other things, 20 new gas wells and 40 temperature sensors are planned. In addition, lines have to be rerouted. As a result, new gas collection points will also be created.
Two mobile gas compressor stations and exhaust air systems, which are to be installed in containers on the site of the waste management center, should particularly catch the eye.
Where only weak gas escapes from the body of the landfill, this is to be burned off – or enriched with oxygen in order to rekindle the gas formation like in a compost heap. The resulting heat is used in the district heating network.
As soon as the district council has given the green light for the construction project, the associated work and deliveries are to be put out to tender.
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