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A modern biogas power plant has been put into operation at the Velyki Hrybovychi landfill near Lviv. It would replace more than 800,000 cubic metres of natural gas a year and provide green electricity to several hundreds of families. Lviv Now visited the event of the plant’s opening and learned how it would work.
«Due to the construction of a power plant, 38 hectares of the landfill, which emits millions of cubic metres of harmful waste gas, will become a source of energy for surrounding farms. According to our estimates, because of the plant, more than 2 million cubic metres of methane, which is thirty times more harmful to the climate than carbon dioxide, won’t be released into the atmosphere» – said Yurii Vitrenko, head of the «Naftogaz» oil and gas company of Ukraine.
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He says the plant will produce more than 2 million kilowatts a year, replacing 800,000 cubic meters of natural gas. This will provide electricity to about 735 farms.
We would note that the biopower plant should reduce the risk of fires that have occurred in the past. In addition, gas production should reduce the height of the landfill – it will settle under its own weight.
As the Lviv mayor noted in a comment to Lviv Now, the total investment in the reclamation of the landfill is over 17 million euros. More than 1 million euros have been invested in the biogas plant project.
«Today in Lviv, we are prioritizing the collection of organics. If we increase its number, despite the growing population in the region, we will not need to increase the capacity of the plant,» – said the mayor, answering the question of whether amendments were made in the project of the biogas plant due to the population growth in the region.
It will be recalled that the Lviv landfill for solid household waste (Hrybovytske landfill) has been operating since 1958 near the village of Velyki Hrybovychi near Lviv. The landfill area is over 38 hectares. The Hrybovytske landfill was closed after the tragedy of 2016, when a large-scale fire broke out on the territory of the landfill. A solid household waste collapsed, as a result of which three rescuers died under the rubble. In Lviv, a garbage processing plant is being built on the street Plastova, 13, which is planned to be completed by August 2023. The general contractor was a consortium of companies WTT Netherlands BV – Axis Industries UAB (Netherlands, Lithuania). However, in July this year, it was changed to a Polish company, Control Process S.A., which offered a higher price in the tender than other companies – 37 million euros.
We will also add that the Supreme Court found the Lviv City Council guilty of inaction due to the use of the Hrybovytske landfill, which killed four people. Meanwhile, the State Inspectorate for Architecture and Urban Planning of Ukraine has issued a permit to build a waste processing plant in Lviv. The capacity of the future plant will be 240,000 tons of waste per year. It will be built near the treatment facilities of Lvivvodokanal on the street. Plastova, 13. Preparatory work is underway there.
A park is planned to be built on the site of the Hrybovytske landfill.
Photo and video: Roman Tyshchenko-Lamanskyi
Sofia Shavranska, translated by Vitalii Holich
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