Garbage lights up Sidon streets

Up to $30 million to be invested in
waste-to-energy plant

The Maarouf Saad Boulevard in Saida is now being lit with methane-produced electricity from the city’s organic waste-to-energy power plant. The plant is operated by the Lebanon-based IBC Company, supported by Jenbacher General Electric, an Austria-based company, part of the US General Electric Group, and supervised by the Municipality of Saida. Jenbacher. provided the electrical cables from the plant that lit up the city streets.

More than 200 tons of waste is received by the factory everyday, which has a maximum capacity of 350 tons. The organic components are sorted and transformed into methane through a digester, which then produces electricity that operates the plant and provides surplus power, which lights up the boulevard. “Currently, the plant produces 2,000 kilowatts per hour and can increase further as more waste is processed by the factory,” said Hamzi Moughrabi, Chair of IBC and the project’s designer. This has allowed the factory to provide full electricity to operate the plant and feed power to the boulevard.

The project followed three stages: The first eradicated harmful gases from the landfill through collection and control systems, the second sorted the organic material from the rubble, which, in the third stage, was then treated in the factory to produce energy. The total cost of the project, beginning with the dismantling of the landfill and providing electricity to the city’s sea-side boulevard will be about $30 million over a period of 30 months. The amount will be secured from various sources, including the Municipality and private companies. “We will be assessing the possibility of providing electricity to more streets in the future,” said Mohammad Saudi, head of Saida Municipality.