Sludge “cleaner” in the Greater Bay Area of Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macau
Guangzhou China Resources Thermal Plant is located in the beautiful city of Guangzhou. As the economy rapidly develops and the living standard continuously improves, the amount of sludge continues to increase in Guangzhou. As estimated by the relevant environmental protection department, Guangzhou sewage plants are expected to produce 3,000 tons of sludge containing 80% of water every day by 2020, covering an area the size of 200 football fields, severely affecting Guangzhou’s image as an international metropolitan city. Treating such sludge without causing harm has become an issue for the relevant environmental protection offices in Guangzhou and has received attention from all walks of life.
In the meantime, policies including 13th Five-Year Plan’s Comprehensive Energy Saving and Emission Reduction Work Scheme, Notice on Carrying out Technological Reform Trial Work on Coupling Coal, Biomass for Power Generation by State Energy Bureau and Energy Protection Department were released in succession. Guangzhou Thermal Plant actively paid attention to the opportunities brought by such policies and social issues. Following multiple investigations and the argumentative analysis of current equipment status, the power plant found that relevant boilers may carry out sludge incineration work if existing equipment and operating methods are adjusted appropriately, thereby participating in the harmless treatment of sludge in Guangzhou and solving the issue of excessive sludge in the city.
To ensure there is no secondary pollution during the treatment of sludge in urban areas, realise harmless waste disposal and transform waste into resources with less waste generated, Guangzhou Thermal Plant, together with South China University of Technology, Guangzhou Institute of Chemistry, CAS and Guangdong Electric Power Research Institute, set up a team that integrates production, learning and research, conquered technology issues in projects, made implementation plans for sludge transportation and storage, carried out environmental impact and air monitoring assessments, imported key coupling test data, established sludge characteristics database and sludge coupling value models, explored replicable urban sludge treatment schemes and achieved breakthroughs in key technology for coupling coal and sludge for co-generation.
As deployed and arranged by Guangzhou government, Guangzhou CR Thermal Plant will take the responsibility for treating 55% of Guangzhou’s sludge resources between 2017 and 2022, completely solving the issue of excessive sludge for the green development in core cities in GuangdongHong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area. As of now, the power plant has led and finished the research and development of key technology for coupling coal and sludge for co-generation, and is expected to turn such technology into actual results and stipulate relevant standards by the end of 2018.
