China Strategy
Rayner AAM is focussing upon the five following categories of environmentally sustainable projects to provide municipal level solutions:
- Municipal Solid Waste Management;
- Municipal Liquid Waste Management;
- Municipal Land Fill Management;
- Municipal Water Remediation and Desalination; and
- Municipal Distributed Solar Thermal Energy.
These projects are aimed at providing sustainable management of municipal:
- Solid waste from households and industrial waste that can be processed using modern gasification or other technologies to produce electrical energy. Solutions will also include solar thermal, fuel cell and other advanced technologies to maximize energy recovery and minimize greenhouse gas emissions;
- Liquid wastes entering the municipal sewerage system so that it can be recycled for industrial and other non-potable uses;
- Land fill management to minimize the need for specific disposal, such as seafood processing waste and toxic industrial waste; and
- Distributed solar thermal energy to provide affordable options for electricity and heat at a residential and light industry level.
Where appropriate the integration of these services will maximise efficiencies while delivering excellent social benefits and stakeholder returns.
Currently, more than 150 million tons of municipal solid waste (MSW) is produced annually from 688 cities in China, with an annual growth of 9%. Each city dweller now produces 440 kg of wastes a year. Solid waste in the country has piled up to a total of 10 billion tons, occupying nearly 800 million square meters of land. There has also been sharp increase on industrial waste, with 650 million tons produced each year. Landfill (70%), incineration (10%) and compost (20%) are the three main ways of disposing MSW in China. Most cities use centralized stacking and simple landfill treating methods. More than 85 per cent of the country's MSW are buried in rubbish plants after disposal. Less than 50% of the wastes are disposed of harmlessly, with 1% of the wastes being utilized. The solid waste management system that is in place in most parts of China do not adequately address the volume needs of the nation, particularly those of the over-populated urban centres.
150 million tons of MSW equates to approximately 210 billion kWhe of electricity generation potential. The Three Gorges Dam supplies 61.6 billion kWhe or about 10% of the total national demand for electricity. The environmental impact of the conversion of MSW to electricity in China is therefore very large.
