About the Project
About: This is a Landfill Gas (LFG) to Energy Project, developed by KlimateNet's member Samsun Avdan Enerji, located on a landfill site south-west of the Samsun city centre, on the Black Sea coast. It is an avoidance project, thus its activities prevent the release of harmful emissions into the atmosphere. It involves collecting the LFG, using it to generate electricity/heat or directly flaring it to convert methane into carbon dioxide, which has a reduced impact on global warming. The project lifetime is 28 years, according to Samsun Avdan Enerji's contract with the Samsun Municipality. The annual average emission reduction will be 115,062 tCO2e. It has been certified by the GSF Registry.
Testimonial from a KlimateNet contributor: Dr Kimon Roussopoulos
KlimateNet contributor Dr Kimon Roussopoulos recently visited one of the facilities of member Samsun Avdan Enerji (contact Erol Iren) in Samsun, Turkey, to observe the “electricity-from-methane-from-waste” operation there. This facility was also on show as part of a KlimateNet event last year.
“There are two main aspects to the operation: in one, the landfill site (in use) is sealed with soil, and landfill gas extracted via suction through a network of porous pipes through the site; microbe action in the waste leads to generation of methane, which in the absence of collection would be released to the atmosphere. (It’s worth reminding ourselves that methane is around 30-90 times more powerful a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, depending on the timeframe under consideration – so even just burning methane removes most of its global warming potential.) In the other, organic material is separated from the waste supply and processed by anaerobic digestion to directly yield methane rich gas. Gas from both streams is burned efficiency in engines that drive electricity generators that feed the grid. While the environment is as down to earth as one would expect for a waste site, the Samsun Avdan operation is a high-tech and tightly monitored operation with well skilled operatives using high-quality equipment.
The operation saves tens of thousands of carbon equivalent a year from being emitted, and generates millions of euros a year’s worth of electricity, enough for over ten thousand homes. The waste site is relatively small, but the scale of energy generated, and carbon saved, is remarkable. Most impressively to a practical engineer, though, is that you can touch the humming pipe through which the saved carbon (well, methane) is actually flowing away from where it would otherwise be released – it’s very tangible. Rather more compelling than messing around on a spreadsheet trying to greenwash a retail supply chain.”
Feel free to contact Erol Iren, Founding Partner and General Manager of Samsun Avdan Enerji, in the Power from Waste Management community on the KlimateNet App.