Yichang waste-to-energy plant marks 40 months of operation

By Chen Si.

Domestic waste, once disposed of through landfilling and a source of concern for local residents, is now being converted into clean electricity that powers thousands of households across Yichang.

Located in Fenghuangguan Village, the Yichang Domestic Waste Incineration Power Plant has operated smoothly for 40 months as of June, processing household and kitchen waste generated by approximately 1.6 million residents.
 

Yichang Domestic Waste Incineration Power Plant. Photo provided by Yichang Three Gorges Environment and Clean energy Co., Ltd.

Since its commissioning in February 2023, Yichang’s urban waste disposal model has shifted from landfilling to waste-to-energy incineration.

At present, household waste collected from 3,376 sorting points and 33 transfer stations across the city is transported and compressed by sanitation workers before being delivered to the incineration plant.

Yichang’s urban areas produce around 1,230 tons of domestic waste per day, with solid waste accounting for 78 percent of the total. The vast majority of this waste is incinerated and converted into green electricity.

Staff members work in the crane operation room of the plant’s main control building. Photo provided by Yichang Three Gorges Environment and Clean energy Co., Ltd.

Waste delivered to the plant is first stored in an 80,000-cubic-meter pit for about one week. After fermentation and leachate drainage to dry up the waste pile and increase calorific value, the waste is incinerated at temperatures exceeding 1,000 degrees Celsius. The resulting heat is converted into steam to drive power generators.

The plant generates about 680 kilowatt-hours of electricity per ton of waste, ranking among the most efficient facilities of its kind in China.

Since opening, the plant has supplied a total of 593 million kilowatt-hours of green electricity to the grid, enough to meet the annual electricity demand of 190,000 local households.

Equipped with a digital twin intelligent management system, the plant supports real-time online monitoring and management of the entire production process. Flue gas undergoes six purification procedures, with all emission indicators meeting national standards and complying with EU 2010 emission standards.

In addition, temperatures above 850 degrees Celsius inside the incinerators effectively break down harmful substances such as dioxins.

The plant has also established an internal recycling system. Waste leachate is treated and reused as production cooling water, while waste gas produced during fermentation is recycled into incinerators for auxiliary combustion, maximizing closed-loop resource utilization.

The harmless incineration disposal rate of domestic waste in Yichang has reached 87.29 percent, according to Yichang’s urban management authority.

Tan Qiangming also contributed to this story