THE Asian Development Bank (ADB) has signed a US$100 million loan facility agreement with China Everbright International Limited (CEIL) to help a series of municipal waste-to-energy (WTE) plants in primary and secondary cities in Vietnam's Mekong Delta.

The loan agreement for what will be Vietnam's first municipal WTE public private partnership was signed on February 2.

“The agreement signed today will be a new model to improve solid waste management in cities, and also mitigate climate change by reducing methane and increasing energy generation from renewable sources,” comments Christopher Thieme, deputy director general of the private sector operations department at the ADB.

Vietnam generates more than 27.8 million tonnes of waste annually, most of which is disposed in landfills in an unhygienic manner, posing a health threat to nearby communities, mostly urban poor.

One of the most effective ways to treat and manage this increasing quantity of municipal solid waste is through WTE, which can reduce waste volume by 90% and eliminate greenhouse gas emissions, while also producing energy from the heat of the waste during incineration.

ADB’s assistance will support the construction and operation of a series of WTE plants with advanced clean technologies in multiple municipalities in Vietnam. Each WTE plant will treat municipal solid waste and supply electricity to the local electricity grid.

CEIL is an integrated environmental protection company, with projects spanning 18 provinces and municipalities in China. As of end of 2017, CEIL had 43 WTE projects in operation with a combined processing capacity of 39,100 tonnes per day and generation capacity of about 4,300 gigawatt-hours per year.

Photo: ADB / Flickr