CERTH/CPERIs’ project ENERGY WASTE was awarded as one of the BEST LIFE Environment / Information projects 2015

The EU project LIFE09/ENV/GR307 – ENERGY WASTE was selected as one of the Best LIFE Environment / Information projects of 2015 and awarded on May 31st in a special event during the EU Green Week 2016 (30 May to 3 June) held in Brussels, Belgium.

The work on “Energy Exploitation of Non-Recyclable Urban Waste in a sustainable waste to Energy market – ENERGY WASTE” was elaborated with CERTH/CPERI as a major beneficiary. Target of the project was to tackle with a major problem arising due to the accumulated waste production, which is recognized as one of the most pressing problems in Greece. Following the guidelines of the European Directive 2008/98/EC, which introduced waste management hierarchy and recommended minimization of landfilled waste, the project ENERGY WASTE proved to be a key component for integrated waste management solution.

The project dealt with a by-product waste stream (Refuse Derived Fuel - RDF) which derives from Material Recovery facilities and Mechanical Biological Treatment plants, which cannot be further mechanically divided for material recovery. After its completion, ENERGY WASTE has successfully met all of the objectives set, including: 1) Characterization and Classification of produced RDF according to European Standards of TC 343 “Solid Recovered Fuels”, 2) Design, erect and operate a novel pilot scale Circulating Fluidized Bed Gasifier, which utilized RDF as feedstock for the production of syngas, 3) Demonstrate the RDF energy exploitation technology of the produced syngas, and 4) Study the environmental impact and economic viability of the designed pilot plant and the gasification technology proposed.

ENERGY WASTE managed to prove a point on gasification and waste management, with Researcher Dr. Panagiotis Grammelis as a scientific responsible and Mr. Panagiotis Vounatsos as a Research Associate and project facilitator/technical expert, for CERTH/CPERI.

Congratulations to all partners (WATT S.A., Region of Central Macedonia, EREF) for their hard work and collaboration and finally thank the EU financing instrument LIFE+, for providing us the opportunity and support to elaborate this significant work by funding the project LIFE09/ENV/GR307.

More information can be found at the project’s website (www.energywaste.gr)