Waste incineration plant "not enough to eat" : Three reasons and five exploration
Recently, Zhejiang Provincial Department of Ecology and Environment issued a document on the collaborative disposal of industrial solid waste by household waste incineration facilities. This paper believes that such collaborative disposal can effectively solve the problem of "no land to go" and "insufficient food" for incineration enterprises. According to the research, the current average load rate of waste incineration plants in China is about 60%, and a large part of domestic waste incineration plants fail to operate at full capacity. The waste incineration project is attracting attention. From the analysis, the waste incineration power plant "not enough to eat" problem, mainly from three reasons.
1. The development of fast forward and source reduction
On June 10, 2020, Zhao Yingmin, vice minister of Ecology and Environment, said at the release of the Communique of the Second National Survey of Pollution Sources that during the 12th Five-Year Plan and 13th Five-Year Plan periods (2011-2020), the number of waste incinerators increased by 303% and the incineration capacity increased by 577%. Corresponding to the rapid development of waste incineration planning is the problem.
On December 20, 2017, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, the National Energy Administration, the Ministry of Environmental Protection, and the Ministry of Land and Resources jointly issued the Notice on Further Planning the site selection of domestic waste incineration Power Plants, emphasizing that all localities can combine their regional economic and social development plans and overall urban planning. Medium - and long-term waste incineration development planning can be carried out in advance of the planning of the site selection of household waste incineration power plants, moderately ahead of the construction of incineration facilities in line with the growth of household waste volume.
However, in practice, many places tend to give too high expectations for regional development, and carry out "over-advanced construction" when the clearing and transportation capacity is not matched, or even carry out "advanced construction" in some areas that do not have advanced construction. Some people in the industry once told the author bluntly that for big cities, the size of the city, including the permanent population, is growing, and there is no problem in the construction of garbage collection and transportation capacity, and there is no problem in advance planning. But for some small cities, population growth is slow, even population outflow, should not plan ahead is a question. Even if the collection and transportation capacity of some small cities in the central area is OK, but the jurisdiction area includes some urban villages, towns and so on, collection and transportation is still a relatively big problem. The core problem of waste incineration construction should not only adapt to the scale of urban development, but also match the capacity of garbage collection and transportation.
2. Fierce market competition
Industrial economics tells us that the Matthew effect is exacerbated as an industry matures. After decades of development, the domestic waste incineration market will enter the peak of development, and the competition among leading enterprises is still fierce. According to the research results of the E20 Research Institute, the current average load rate of waste incineration plants in China is about 60%, and a large number of domestic waste incineration plants are not operating at full capacity. This kind of "not enough to eat" situation not only causes the waste of resources, but also needs to be solved for the sustainable and healthy development of the industry.
3. Insufficient collection and transportation capacity
At present, the collection and transportation system of big cities is relatively sound, and the lack of clearance and transportation capacity is mainly concentrated in cities, counties and townships, as well as some economically underdeveloped areas. Especially some long-distance transport across regions, for local governments, may not be a small cost.
In 2020, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, and the Ministry of Ecology and Environment jointly issued the Implementation Plan for Strengthening Weaknesses of Urban Solid Waste Classification and Treatment Facilities (hereinafter referred to as: Three ministries and commissions documents), focusing on the weaknesses of urban solid waste classification and treatment facilities, the difficulties and plugging points for a long time, proposed key tasks and construction programs. It is clearly required to take 46 key cities as the breakthrough point, strive to promote the construction of classified collection and transportation system in key cities, and fully complete the classified collection and transportation system of household garbage by 2023.
At the end of last year, the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development jointly issued the Implementation Plan on Accelerating the Improvement of the weak points of county-level domestic waste incineration Facilities (hereinafter referred to as the Plan of the five ministries and commissions at the county level), which once again stressed that by 2025, the country at the county level should further improve the domestic waste collection and transportation system and further improve the collection and transportation capacity.
The introduction of these policies also shows that the country has long seen the problem and has been trying to solve it. However, for local governments, the marketization degree of garbage collection and transportation is low, and the profitability is not as good as that of sanitation and incineration. How to promote the construction of the collection and transportation system and the marketization of the collection and transportation links more effectively, and how to connect the collection and transportation with the end disposal more effectively? It has also become the direction of government exploration. For example, the Plan of Five Ministries and Commissions at the county Level encourages qualified county-level areas to explore and promote the overall hosting mode of household garbage treatment, and to promote the collection, transfer and treatment of household garbage at the county level by relying on the integration of large enterprises in the way of "one county, one main body".
At present, there are five major explorations to solve the problem of "insufficient food" in waste incineration projects:
1.Multi-class collaborative incineration
2.Interregional joint incineration
3.Integrate the collection and transportation links, open up the collection and transportation and incineration industry chain
4.Dig out stale landfill refuse for incineration
5.Strengthen internal performance and improve quality and efficiency by improving operation management
Source: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/JOXApParhaK4eB6dNQVD5Q