WtERT Canada | Regional Chapter of the Global WtERT® Council

WtERT Canada Forum: No time to waste, resources, recovery and the road to Net-Zero and Zero Landfilling

Reda Kabbaj — Wed, 09 Mar 2022 02:42:56 +0000

The Waste-to-Energy Research and Technology Canada (WtERT Canada), hosted a full-day 100% online FREE webinar on Waste to Energy (WtE) in partnership with The Concordia Institute for Water, Energy and Sustainable Systems (CIWESS) in Montreal, the Global WtERT Council and the Earth Engineering Center of Columbia University in New York, USA.

Featuring impartial industry experts and academic researchers in a highly interactive webinar, this unique, full-day conference presented current findings on energy recovery within a broad waste management context, with a focus on the issues of most concern to decision-makers and stakeholders. Participants gained insights into knowledge gaps, policy options, and pathways to connect ideas with investment and lead to start the plan to build a Waste-to-Energy (WtE) facility in the region of Sarnia, Lambton County, Ontario.

Many municipalities are exploring new ways to manage municipal solid waste. They often have questions about how waste-to-energy technologies are different, how they work, and the economic and environmental implications for using these technologies.

WtE technologies are in operation around the world. But how do these technologies work and what are the economic and environmental implications for managing waste? What role does WtE have as we try to build a Circular Economy and promote reduction and recycling in Ontario to face the shortage of landfills and reduce exporting residual waste in the USA?

The webinar provided attendees with an overview of the different technologies from leading global Waste-to-Energy experts and assist them develop a greater understanding of how these technologies work and the opportunities and challenges of local implementation.

The Conference addressed these key topics:

Changing perceptions about waste to energy facilities and their role within an integrated waste management strategy.
Health and environmental impacts.
The role of Academia to disseminate credible information and facts about Waste-to-Energy technologies.
When and where to start building a Waste-to-energy facility in Sarnia Lambton and other Communities in Ontario.

The webinar was held on Thursday, March 8th, 2022 from 9.00 a.m. to 2.30 p.m.

You can watch the full webinar on the link bellow:

Webinar Schedule & Proceedings

Click on the topic’s name of each speaker to download their presentation:

9:00 am	*Welcome and Introductions* Mr. Reda Kabbaj, VP International Relations Global WtERT Council and Co-Chair WtERT Canada
9:15 am	Food waste to energy via anaerobic treatment Prof. Catherine Mulligan, Co-Chair WtERT Canada, Director of The Concordia Institute for Water, Energy and Sustainable Systems (CIWESS). Concordia University in Montreal, Canada
9:45 am	**Cases from managing residual waste from Scandinavian cities** Ms. Bettina Kamuk, Global Market Director at Ramboll, Denmark
10:15 am	Technical and commercial requirements for global WtE solutions Mr. Roland Greil, Senior Sales Director at Hitachi Zosen Inova, Switzerland
15 min	Break
11:00 am	The role of Waste-to-Energy (WtE) as a renewable, sustainable, clean energy solution in the U.S.A.: A review of the health impacts of WtE facilities. Prof. Marco Castaldi, Chair-WtERT USA, City College of New York
11:30 am	GHG advantage of WTE – Major WTE advance in 2010-2020 – How to plan for a WTE plant in southeast Ontario Prof. Nickolas Themelis, President Global WtERT Council
15 min	Break
12:15 pm	*WTE’s Role in a Low Carbon Economy* Mr. Michael Van Brunt, Senior Sustainability Director at Covanta, USA
12:45 pm	Introduction of MYT technology Mr. Glen Tobiason, CEO InnoWaCon LLC, USA & Canada
15 min	Break
1:30 pm	Q & A for panelists only
2:30 pm	Closing Comments From: Mr. Reda Kabbaj and Prof. Catherine Mulligan

ABREN – Brazilian Waste to Energy Forum, 27-28 May 2021, online event

Reda Kabbaj — Mon, 24 May 2021 15:13:35 +0000

Organized by The Brazilian Association for Energy Recovery of Waste (ABREN), sister organization of The Global WtERT Council (GWC).

The event will have the participation of the Main Players, Industry Experts and Academia Representatives to discuss the main challenges and opportunities for the Waste-to-Energy sector in Brazil. It will give an opportunity to bring people together to discuss new directions and trends in the energy from waste sector.

Reda Kabbaj, Co-Chair of WtERT-Canada, will present the role of Waste-to-Energy in a circular economy society, including the concept of industrial ecology where an industry such as Waste-to-Energy supplies its by-product in form of steam or electricity to power another industry with case-studies from Canada, Ethiopia as well the development of such a concept in Morocco.

For further information about the event, please visit ABREN’s webpage.

Co-Chair of WtERT Canada & Concordia professor becomes president of the Canadian Society for Civil Engineering

Reda Kabbaj — Wed, 21 Apr 2021 03:32:06 +0000

Catherine Mulligan also became a fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering earlier this year

A 4-year commitment

“I’m delighted and honoured to represent Concordia at the national level,” says Mulligan, a Concordia University Research Chair in Geoenvironmental Sustainability.

Previously, she was senior vice president and president elect, respectively. After her year as president, she will be the past president for 12 months.

“It’s a four-year commitment, in total,” she notes. “That allows you to make an impact.”

Mulligan wears the honour humbly, as she did when she became a fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering earlier this year. In 2018, she also received the coveted John B. Stirling Medal for career achievement from the Engineering Institute of Canada.

“When I started studying to be a chemical engineer, people were using biological surfactants to bind with oil to remove it from tanks and fields. But I was the first to use biological surfactants to remove metal contaminants from soil,” says Mulligan, the author of Sustainable Engineering.

“Decontamination — soil washing to remove metal — put her on the map in the field of geoenvironmental engineering. Then Dr. Mulligan gained more than 25 years of research experience in government, industrial and academic environments. I can’t think of a more dynamic, deserving candidate. Her appointment raises Concordia’s profile as an institution that supports innovation.”

Rolling up her sleeves

As the founding director of the Concordia Institute for Water, Energy and Sustainable Systems (CIWESS), Mulligan continues to research new systems, technologies and solutions for water, energy and resource conservation.

The CIWESS launched with a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) six-year CREATE grant, focusing on socially conscious and eco-friendly engineering practices that educate students in methods of preserving our planet.

Eight years later, the institute has trained more than 70 students into highly qualified personnel. It’s home to 12researchers at Concordia.

“We’re looking at low-energy water treatments, how to make methane from wastewater and how to design water treatment in collaboration with communities,” explains Mulligan, who works in the Department of Building, Civil and Environmental Engineering.

“In gold mining areas, where they use cyanide to leach gold from ore, we’re researching how to remove nitrogen from wastewater using microorganisms.”

Cleaning Lac Caron and Lac Johanne

This summer, Mulligan is engrossed in a project in the Sainte-Anne-des-Lacs region of Quebec.

She’s the lead on a three-year NSERC-funded initiative with industry partner Titan Environmental Containment, who make geomembranes, among other things.

“We’re focusing on two at-risk lakes, Lac Caron and Lac Johanne,” Mulligan says. “One lake has an overgrowth of algae and the other lake is brownish from degraded organic materials in the water.”

Mulligan and her team are running tests at the two lakes and feeding water into the filtration systems made in part of geotextiles.

“The idea is to monitor changes in the water, then strategically place the filter where it will be the most effective and efficient, most likely near the wetlands that feed into Lac Johanne,” explains Mulligan.

She recently published an article titled “Energetic and economic feasibility of a combined membrane-based process for sustainable water and energy systems” in Applied Energy.

Mulligan is teaching this summer while replying to daily emails from executives and members of the CSCE.

“I’ve ramped up to this job over the last two years, so hopefully there are no big surprises,” she says. “It’s humbling to have the opportunity to serve the community in this way.”

8th International Conference on Sustainable Solid Waste Management: Thessaloniki, Greece, 23–26 June 2021

Reda Kabbaj — Fri, 29 May 2020 09:37:37 +0000

The Conference aims to address the significant issue of sustainable solid waste management through the promotion of safe practices & effective technologies.

The Conference focuses mainly on modern solid waste technologies. It aims to stimulate the interest of scientists and citizens and inform them about the latest developments in the field of municipal solid waste management.

The Conference will provide an opportunity to bring together scientists & professionals from government departments, industries, Municipalities, private institutions, research & education institutions, being a forum for the exchange of the most recent ideas, techniques & experiences in all areas of solid waste management. A special full one-day workshop will also focus on representatives of local authorities and municipalities in order to promote integrated solid waste management schemes.

WtERT Canada will participate and has submitted an abstract for online presentation.

More information about the program and registration to the conference can be found in this link bellow:

https://www.thessaloniki2021.uest.gr

The Zero Waste utopia and the role of waste-to-energy

Reda Kabbaj — Fri, 29 May 2020 09:22:18 +0000

An Editorial by Peter Quicker, Stefano Consonni from MatER (WtERT Italy) and Mario Grosso, renown Professors in the field, discusses why modern waste management needs to rely on ecologically friendly and affordable treatment for recycling residues and residual waste.

“…100% recycling has not been possible to achieve even after decades of evolution in the waste management industry, aimed at maximising diversion of wastes from WtE plants and landfills. Harmful contaminants are always collected alongside the valuables and must be segregated to protect man and the environment. Apart from glass and metals, the valuables themselves may lose their original properties and need to be excluded from the cycle. For these residuals, a safe final treatment or disposal method must be available in order to protect public health. The only options are WtE for organic substances and landfilling for minerals and hazardous residues.<…>

Therefore, WtE is a necessary and compatible partner of recycling, and not a competitor that some might claim. A modern recycling economy is reliant on ecologically friendly and affordable treatment options for the residues arising from the recycling processes.

WtE is also indispensable for the treatment of another large and problematic fraction: the residual waste. These remainders of our civilisation have to be treated in an environmentally sound manner. Modern WtE plants are the method of choice and the only reasonable option for this purpose in locations with sufficiently dense populations and with the resources and technical talent to build and operate such plants.”

Full Editorial Bellow

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0734242X20918453

Municipal Solid Waste Could Contribute Significant Supply of Alternative Energy to U.S. Businesses, Communities

Reda Kabbaj — Thu, 28 May 2020 01:21:43 +0000

A study conducted by the Earth Engineering Center (EEC) of Columbia University has found that if all of the municipal solid waste (MSW) that is currently put into landfills each year in the United States were diverted to waste-to-energy (WTE) power plants, they could generate enough electricity to power nearly 14 million homes annually, or 12 percent of the U.S. total. According to the study, this shift also could reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 123 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalents per year, an amount comparable to taking more than 23 million cars off our roads.

The study, ” 2014 Energy and Economic Value of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW), including and Non-recycled Plastics (NRP), Currently Landfilled in the Fifty States,” found that the recovery of resources from waste, and hence, diverted from landfill, in the United States increased between 2008 and 2011. The recycling of materials from MSW improved by 18.5 million tons, and the tonnage of materials processed by WTE facilities grew by 3.8 million tons during this period.

Key statistics from the study are illustrated in a new infographic bellow

The EEC study found that:

If we had the capacity to divert all of the solid waste that was landfilled in 2011 to waste-to-energy facilities,[i] we could generate enough electricity to supply about 13.8 million households[ii], or 12 percent of the entire United States.
If just the non-recycled plastics in solid waste were to be source-separated and converted through today’s plastics-to-oil technologies into fuel oil[iii], they could produce 135 million barrels of oil per year – or 5.7 billion gallons of gasoline, enough to fuel 8.9 million cars
If we could convert our non-recycled waste to alternative energy instead of landfilling it, we could preserve more than 6,000 acres of open space every year that would otherwise be used to store garbage.

In a nutshell, EEC found that our everyday trash is an abundant, domestic energy resource, and that using more of today’s technologies to unlock that energy could also bring about environmental benefits, such as lowering greenhouse gas emissions, and making better use of energy than burying it in a landfill.

Recovery of Materials and Energy from Urban Wastes

Reda Kabbaj — Thu, 14 Nov 2019 20:24:27 +0000

Check out the volume Recovery of Materials and Energy from Urban Wastes, from Encyclopedia of Sustainability Science and Technology (2e) series, edited by Nickolas J. Themelis & Thanos Bourtsalas (PhD) from WtERT

This volume in the Encyclopedia of Sustainability Science and Technology, Second edition, provides a comprehensive overview of complementary strategies for dealing with waste in and around urban areas: Waste-to-energy power plants (WTEs) and recycling. Chapters in this volume describe how these plants can be built within or near cities to transform the non-recycled residues of society into electricity and heat, and the recovery of metals using recycling technology and management techniques. The latter includes resource recovery from construction and demolition and electronic waste streams.

Provides an excellent example of industrial ecology where technology mimics the age-old ecological cycle
Introduces the importance of combining recycling and waste to energy (WTE) in attaining sustainable waste management
Describes in detail the dominant WTE technologies of moving grate and circulating fluid bed
Covers the use of non-recycled plastics and paper, and other “wastes” as alternative fuels in cement plants
Includes energy from both renewable and non-renewable waste sources

With nearly one thousand WTE plants worldwide, waste incineration has become increasingly important as a means of closing the materials life- cycle loop. China leads in the beneficial use of these residues with about 30 new WTEs built in each of the last three years, and with plans for at least another 300 with one or more in each large city. In addition, increasing numbers of cement plants use “waste” materials as alternative fuels. Since currently all of these plants combust less than 20% of the available wastes, and the remainder ends up in landfills or dumps, this sector represents a huge market in the making. This comprehensive reference is suitable for readers just entering the field, but also offers new insights for advanced researchers, industry experts, and decision makers.

Successful Implantation of the World’s Smallest Heart Maker

econnect-1 — Tue, 14 Aug 2018 04:37:44 +0000

It’s complicated. I’ve spent more than 20 years recommending various anti-virus programs as an essential part of any Windows setup. However, Windows has changed, and the threat landscape has changed. I am no longer sure that a third-party AV program is essential, and some of them may be detrimental. Of course, needs vary.

Some people are more accident-prone than others, and some are less sensitive to threats. Some venture into riskier parts of the internet. Some need to protect very valuable information. All these factors should be taken into account. A risk-aware Windows user can probably survive without any anti-virus software at all. I ran Windows XP for a year to try to prove it. Less knowledgeable users can get their PCs infected no matter how much protection you give them.

That’s no longer the case
Today’s malware is written by professionals
They are less interested in virusest
They are interested in collecting financial information
They know they can blackmail people into paying for something

Sofware can’t protect people from themselves

Some need to protect very valuable information. All these factors should be taken into account. A risk-aware Windows user can probably survive without any anti-virus software at all. I ran Windows XP for a year to try to prove it. Less knowledgeable users can get their PCs infected no matter how much protection you give them. Software can’t protect people from themselves.

The purpose of an Industrial Safety Project carried out by GTG Ingenieros is to give the client the guarantee of obtaining with a high level.

The development of an Industrial Safety Project in GTG INGENIEROS involves the movement of the personnel of the Engineering department to the facilities of our customers to offer the best choice.

Division dedicates Water ATM facility to residents

econnect-1 — Sun, 22 Apr 2018 04:35:03 +0000

That’s no longer the case
Today’s malware is written by professionals
They are less interested in virusest
They are interested in collecting financial information
They know they can blackmail people into paying for something

Sofware can’t protect people from themselves

The purpose of an Industrial Safety Project carried out by GTG Ingenieros is to give the client the guarantee of obtaining with a high level.

The development of an Industrial Safety Project in GTG INGENIEROS involves the movement of the personnel of the Engineering department to the facilities of our customers to offer the best choice.

One Day, a Machine Will Smell Whether You’re Sick

econnect-1 — Mon, 11 Sep 2017 07:52:38 +0000

That’s no longer the case
Today’s malware is written by professionals
They are less interested in virusest
They are interested in collecting financial information
They know they can blackmail people into paying for something

Sofware can’t protect people from themselves

The purpose of an Industrial Safety Project carried out by GTG Ingenieros is to give the client the guarantee of obtaining with a high level.

The development of an Industrial Safety Project in GTG INGENIEROS involves the movement of the personnel of the Engineering department to the facilities of our customers to offer the best choice.