Using energy from waste: A sustainable solution to reduce carbon emissions and heating costs from SUS ENVIRONMENT

XIAN, China, Dec. 24, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Our life quality depends on a reliable energy supply at an affordable price. Especially in winter, much more energy is needed to heat homes. Under normal conditions, heating companies burn fossil fuels to generate heat and transport it to homes. However, this heat supply generates plenty of pollutants, which is detrimental to climate change mitigation.

This year, the Gaoling residents in the Chinese city of Xi'an are using the excess heat generated by burning waste to meet the growing demand in winter. Using the surplus heat from waste-to-energy (WtE) plants as a substitute for burning fossil fuels have many advantages. Firstly, it saves costs. The Gaoling Waste-to-Heat project has reduced external heating costs for heating companies by 55%. The second advantage is the lower pollutant emissions. The heat generated by waste incineration has a significant impact on reducing emissions of pollutants such as particulate matter, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides and reduces around 43,000 tons of carbon dioxide. The waste heat from the SUS Gaoling WtE project can meet the heating needs of over 3.8 million square meters of urban area, benefiting 121 residential communities and 35,000 households.

The Gaoling Waste-to-Heat project is not the first case in China. In 2023, the SUS Qingdao West Coast Project pioneered the use of heat from waste incineration to provide residents with an annual heating capacity of 720,000 GJ, saving 30,000 tons of standard coal and reducing CO₂ emissions by 79,200 tons. Heat from combustion will also be supplied to industry. The SUS Liuzhou project supplies 2,500 tons of waste heat per month to pharmaceutical and food factories. The SUS Zhuhai project provides 80,000 tons of waste heat per year to a pharmaceutical factory, saving over RMB 8,000 per day.

The above waste-to-heat practices come from SUS ENVIRONMENT, a leading global comprehensive environmental services provider. As of June 2024, SUS ENVIRONMENT has invested in 84 waste-to-energy plants worldwide with a daily capacity of 110,000 tons of waste. The total amount of heat supplied is 7,933,336 GJ, saving 299,594 tons of standard coal and reducing 872,667 tons of CO₂ emissions. SUS ENVIRONMENT is the global leading provider of waste-to-energy equipment and one of the top three global investors in low-carbon Eco-industrial parks.