By Francis Allan L. Angelo
BusinessWorld/Weekender section/October 30, 2009
http://beta.bworldonline.com/weekender/content.php?id=566
ILOILO CITY — A Filipino-Korean consortium is offering solid waste-to-energy technology to the Iloilo city government to address its garbage disposal problems.
The consortium, composed of South Korea’s Taewoong Energy and Environment Engineering Co. Ltd. and Petroxy Philippine Power Corp., presented its proposal to the Iloilo City Solid Waste Management Board last week.
Noel Z. Hechanova, city environment and natural resources officer, said Taewoong President Heung-Pyo Lee and Petroxy business development director Neil Javier-Agustin made the presentation.
Mr. Hechanova said the consortium will use the stoker incinerator technology to burn solid wastes dumped at Brgy. Calajunan, Mandurriao and produce electricity.
The project can burn 200 metric tons of garbage daily and generate an estimated four megawatts daily aside from carbon credits under the Kyoto Protocol, Mr. Hechanova said.
Iloilo City generates some 170 metric tons of garbage, which are dumped daily at the Calajunan dump site.
Mr. Hechanova said the waste management board’s technical working group is studying the consortium’s proposal.
Helen G. Sotomil, member of the technical working group, said the consortium offered to conduct a feasibility study on the project.
If the city government accepts the proposal, the Koreans will offer a soft loan through the Korea Export Import Bank.
The loan, which will be used for the purchasing of machineries and emission technology, has an interest rate of less than 1% annually and is payable in 20 years, with a grace period of 10 years.
Ms. Sotomil said the consortium assured that the technology complies with Republic Act 8749 or the Clean Air Act of 1999, particularly the standards on carbon dioxide and particulate emissions.
“The Koreans are also operating the same project in Baguio City and Boracay Island aside from Korea and Southeast Asian countries. If approved, the project will be located within the Calajunan dump site,” Ms. Sotomil said.
She added that towns adjacent to Iloilo City can then dump their garbage at Calajunan if the waste-to-energy project pushes through.
Iloilo City has an existing agreement with Holcim Cement Corp. to send plastic wastes to fuel the firm’s plant in Lugait, Misamis Oriental.
The agreement aims to help Iloilo City convert the dump into a sanitary landfill in compliance with Republic Act 9003 or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act.



