Middle East’s first waste-to-energy plant opens in Sharjah

On Tuesday, the Sharjah Waste to Energy plant was inaugurated by Dr. Sheikh Sultan bin Muhammad Al Qasimi, Supreme Council Member and Ruler of Sharjah.

It is the Middle East’s first waste-to-energy plant and it’s the first project of Emirates Waste to Energy, a joint venture established by Beeah Energy and Masdar.

The plant, first announced in 2018, will divert up to 300,000 tonnes of waste from landfills annually.

It will contribute to avoiding the emission of up to 450,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide annually, which supports the country’s efforts to implement the strategic initiative to achieve climate neutrality by 2050, according to news agency WAM.

افتتاح محطة الشارقة لتحويل النفايات إلى طاقة ، الأولى من نوعها على مستوى الشرق الأوسط

Inaugurating Sharjah Waste-to-Energy plant, the first of its kind in the Middle East pic.twitter.com/VbsjJfsZw0

— HH Sheikh Dr. Sultan (@HHShkDrSultan) May 24, 2022

It will produce 30 megawatts of low-carbon electricity, enough to supply electricity to about 28,000 homes in the UAE, and provide 45 million cubic meters of natural gas each year.

Constructed by France-based industrial contractor CNIM, the plant covers an area of 80,000 sq m.

Within it, unrecyclable waste is fed into a boiler to produce high-pressure steam, turning electric turbine generators. Toxins and pollutants are filtered from the flue gas produced during the process. Bottom ash is collected to recover metals and ash material for use in construction and roadwork applications, while fly ash is collected and treated separately.

Adjacent to the plant is a waste-management complex operated by Beeah Recycling, Beeah Group’s recycling and material recovery business, which has already helped achieve a 76 percent landfill waste diversion rate in the emirate of Sharjah. Unrecyclable waste from the complex will be transported to the waste-to-energy plant.

“With the waste-to-energy plant entering the actual operation phase, we will be able to completely treat non-recyclable waste, thus raising the rate of waste diversion in the Emirate of Sharjah away from landfills to one hundred percent,” said Khaled Al Huraimel, group CEO of Beeah.

Highlights from the inauguration ceremony of the #Sharjah #WasteToEnergy plant, the first commercial-scale facility of its kind in the Middle East, developed by @EmiratesWTE, a joint venture between @BEEAHGroup and #Masdar. pic.twitter.com/ZcaWesBvF3

— Masdar (@Masdar) May 24, 2022

Beeah and Masdar have reportedly begun exploring opportunities for the Emirates Waste to Energy company to open similar plants across the UAE and the wider region.

Read: UAE’s first waste-to-energy plant to produce 30MW of low-carbon electricity annually