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THE POOLBEG INCINERATOR in Dublin is operating now at full capacity after a series of performance tests.
The Dublin Waste to Energy project is a public private partnership between Dublin City Council and recycling and energy company Covanta.
According to its operator, the waste-to-energy facility is processing approximately 1,800 tonnes of solid waste per day.
It’s allowing Ireland’s eastern region to become self-sufficient in managing waste and complying with EU landfill diversion targets.
It’s also generating 60 megawatts of continuous electricity which is exported onto the national grid – enough to power 80,000 Irish homes.
A number of third-party tests were carried out to ensure that the incinerator was complying with emission limits set by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Covanta said that the results of the tests showed that the emissions were well below the limits.
John Daly, general manager of the facility, said that they were delighted to operating at full capacity.
“As with any major infrastructure project, there are challenges along the way, but I’m proud of the way our team has persevered and overcome any difficulties in the commissioning process,” he said.
The outstanding results from the independent emissions testing are extremely gratifying.
The facility will burn 600,000 tonnes of waste each year, the bulk of which is delivered via the Port Tunnel.
The incinerator was met with a lot of local protest before it became operational.
It started operations in June of this year, and faced a number of setbacks in that time.
Eleven people were brought to hospital in June following an ‘unscheduled’ release of lime from the plant’s fabric filter baghouse, which filters emissions during the burning process.
The EPA also found in July a “moderate” infestation of flies at the site.
On Monday, the operator of the site was given two months to decide how it will plead to breaking its environmental protection licence.
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Much Better than landfill. Well done E.U for increasing tariffs on landfill waste and forcing Ireland in to incineration and subsequent power generation.
@Pconor: better than landfill or not it’s a giant ugly industrial waste zone at the gateway to the city. Would any the other city in the world allow such ugliness be built in such a prominent location ?
Dublin – city of a thousand eyesores.
@Pconor: ah yes, its much better to inhale you waste then drink it. Birching the guidelines on a. Regular bases.
@Stephen Adam: it’s beside a power station and a scrap yard in a commercial/industrial dockland. Not exactly tearing up oasis n waterfalls to put it in there.
@Stephen Adam: I don’t think it’s ugly in anyway. I think it actually looks quite smart.
@Stephen Adam: Copenhagen has several in the city….so does Vienna
@Stephen Adam: That’s rubbish, its surrounded by an existing power station, a industrial docks with dozens of cranes, acres of container storage, a concrete batching plant, scrap metal and a sewerage treatment plant next door. What you don’t probably know is that it actually takes the treated water from the waste plant, distills it, and uses it for power generation..What Covanta need to do now is open this place for tours, apart from the structure, the mechanical and electrical within it is state of the art!
@Stephen Adam: NIMBYISM
@Stephen Adam: And the added benefit of a permanent plume destroying the city skyline visible from virtually everywhere within the M50
We know . You can see the constant plumes of smoke pumping freshly made healthy gases into the Dublin skyline
@nelly:
How do you know what you see is smoke?
@nelly: Its not smoke
@nelly: It’s probably steam from the various cleaning systems used post incineration – perhaps also they are recycling the heat via a boiler
@nelly: its not smoke.
@Ken Mitchell: Science has no place in this discussion Ken!
@Donal Hanley: can smell it
@Shane Freeney: yes it is
@Ken Mitchell: no it’s smoke
@Do the Bort man: oh yes it is
Is it a proven fact that there is no damaging particulate matter in the steam/smoke emissions from the incinerator.
I walk Sandymount Strand every day and , depending on wind direction, I have sometimes smelt the gases from the facility and also felt an irritating sensation in my throat. It is difficult to believe that the emissions are not carrying potentially dangerous or even toxic matter into the air breathed by the residents of many communities north and south of the Liffey.
I would be very interested to know if problems have arisen at other sites operated by Covanta and whether there has been any long term effects on the health of populations.
@John Mcalinden: Considering there’s a sewage treatment plant and other industries next door to the incinerator, how do you know that the air your breathing is solely form the incinerator?
@BlueSkyThinking: still probably healthier than breathing the neighbors backyard burning in the countryside.
@John Mcalinden: Nothing to do with the sewage leaks onto the beach?
@John Mcalinden: There are some very small emissions of dioxins and furans from the chimneys. There are other chemicals as well, I am sure of, CO2, H20 (water vapor), NOx. There may be traces of sulphur oxides. There may be traces of volatile metals, and various chlorinated compounds. I think there are many gaseous emissions, many at extremely low levels.
NOx (Nitrogen Oxides) are a family of poisonous, highly reactive gases. These gases form when fuel is burned at high temperatures. NOx pollution is emitted by automobiles, trucks and various non-road vehicles (e.g., construction equipment, boats, etc. This is one candidate for an irritating sensation in your throat. (That’s Nitrogen Oxide, and Nitrogen Dioxide. NO, and NO2, I think.) (That’s different from laughing gas, N2O, aka Nitrous Oxide, (diNitrogen Oxide).)
There was some pollution above the permitted level from a Canadian plant detected.
“A stack test in May 2016 at the Canadian plant indicated that the limit for dioxins and furans were exceeded on unit 1. The emissions exceedance for this unit was not representative of normal operations and previous stack tests and engineering runs have demonstrated compliance. Unit 2 continues to operate without issue with dioxin emissions at only 20% of the permitted levels.”
From that, I understand that a certain amount of dioxins and furans are permitted to be vented through the chimneys. These dioxins and furans are plural. There are many different types of dioxins and furans. For example, there might be various chlorinated furans, (plural), emitted. There is some type of testing for these. I am very sceptical of it.
It should be noted that John Gormley was against the incinerator, and I agreed with him on that. He impeded granting the licence. Eamon Ryan came into power when the plant was already operational. He had no say in the matter.
Nice to see filthy toxic smoke billowing into cold clear blue sky these winter days.
It is interesting the way it gets trapped some days by thermal inversion and with the traffic fumes forms a layer of brown mist over the whole city..
@DeFonz: for all your fancy terms you should know it’s not smoke
@DeFonz: learn the difference between steam and smoke.
@FPL Thommo: so where does the smoke go?
. . The plant emits both exhaust gases (smoke) and steam…
@Mark Hosford: Smoke is visible particulates of unburned carbon. All waste incinerators (should) be bring waste at a temperature which breaks everything down into carbon dioxide and water.
No unburned carbon = no smoke. Just invisible waste gasses, and what you’re likely seeing, steam from one place or another.
Still looks like Dr Evil’s lair to me.
@Ciarán Oglesby: thankfully they didn’t make it look like the rocket that blasted him into space!
Talking to oneself on Poolbeg
A there it goes
What goes?
That Pizza Box you cant put in your green bin and all them coffee cups and other stuff .
Where they going ?
Well to the Poolbeg incinerator.
What
Yea they are going to burn them and make electricity.
MMMM HOLD THE HORSES.
Why?
well they are going to take your waste and burn it to make electricity?
Yea
So we will be paying to give them that waste.
Yea.
We will be paying for the electricity?
Yes
Are we getting our electricity any cheaper because we are supplying the fuel source?
I dont know.
But they said its to prevent our waste going to landfill?
Yes
But they told us the reason collecting the waste and charging us more and more each year since the charges came in.
Was the high costs of using landfill?
Yes.
But it wont be going to landfill anymore will it?
Seemingly not.
So why will they keep charging us for it?
Because they can rip us off twice
So they want to charge us twice for our waste.
Once for collecting it and once on our electricity?
Yes
They will be using our waste will save millions on imported fuel?
Yes
It wont be going to landfill.
yes
But your waste charge or electric bill will not come down
yea seems so seems so
.
@Dusty Bannister: Well put. Don’t forget about most people being asked to opt out of postal bills, another saving. A saving that wasn’t passed on to the consumer – indeed, energy prices only went up. Also, musing on the vast reduction in posted bills, followed by the closing of post offices… Seems so, indeed.
well all the rubbish has to go somewhere, seeing as half the population cannot b bothered recycling properly. And that is not taking into account all the plastic bottles, can and coffee cups left on the streets of our town and villages. Castleknock was left in an awful state after the Dublin City marathon. Who does these people think is going to pick up their discarded drink and coffee containers. If you ask me we should build a couple more Pool Begs
And still we produce tonnes of single use packaging and crap with no deposit or incentive to reuse and recycle. This Fine Gael government is quite literally one of the dirtiest environmentally unfriendly administrations in Europe.
@Elizabeth Davidson:
Ah shure us Irish are sound and great craic on the lash, Covanta would never do to us what they did to them dummy yanks.
@Elizabeth Davidson: The first article link talks about the Pinellas County Resource Recovery Facility causing pollution incidents and accidents from 1990 to March 2009, it was not owned by Covanta at that time. Covanta bought the facility in Feb 2010, which was badly run, and they cleaned it up.
“James Regan, a spokesman for Covanta, said the facility has been in full compliance since Covanta took over operations.”
The second article talks about an operator error that led to excess mercury emissions for one day from an incinerator operated by Wheelabrator Baltimore L.P. in 2011, it is not owned or operated by Covanta.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheelabrator_Incinerator
All the other article links seem to be missing.
What if we reduced our waste to almost zero? Would they then have to import waste, or would DCC and effectively the public have to pay large penalties to Coventa. As the policy should be to keep reducing our waste, is such a system not a disincentive to zero waste. Reduce Reuse Recycle.
It’s in the wrong place ..should be in the city
have your say