Busan City Takes Initiative to Achieve 'Renewable Energy Production and Carbon Neutrality' Using Food Waste!

Installation of Food Waste Treatment Facility Capable of Processing 250 Tons per Day

Expected Benefits: Stable Waste Management, Power Generation, and Cost Savings

Overall aerial view of the organic waste biogasification facility.

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Dongguk Lee] The public processing rate of food waste in the Busan area is expected to significantly increase from the existing 30% to 60% through the biogasification facility.

On the 22nd, Busan City signed the ‘Busan Organic Waste Biogasification Facility Private Investment Project (BTO-a) Implementation Agreement’ with the project operator Busan Bioenergy.

The agreement was signed remotely without a separate ceremony, and it included consensus on the total project cost, construction, operation, and other overall matters of the facility.

The organic waste biogasification facility is an eco-friendly environmental infrastructure that utilizes biogas generated during the ‘anaerobic digestion process,’ which decomposes food waste with microorganisms, as a resource.

The city is promoting this project to expand public facilities capable of stable food waste processing.

Busan City received a project proposal from the project operator POSCO Construction in November 2017 and completed the private investment feasibility study in March 2019. Then, in July 2020, after a third-party proposal announcement, POSCO Construction, Hansol EM, and Sammi Construction formed the (tentatively named) Busan Bioenergy consortium, which was designated as the preferred negotiator in October of the same year, and negotiations have continued since.

Recently, negotiations faced difficulties due to the decline in Renewable Energy Certificate (REC) prices and System Marginal Price (SMP) rates, as well as the surge in raw material prices caused by global inflation and interest rate hikes. However, through several rounds of practical negotiations, the implementation agreement was dramatically signed, laying the foundation for project promotion.

This project involves installing a biogasification facility capable of processing 250 tons of waste per day on a site of 16,298㎡ in Saenggok-dong, Gangseo-gu. The total project cost is 67.7 billion KRW (24 billion KRW from the national government, 43.7 billion KRW from private investment), and the operation period is 20 years from the start of operation.

Location map of the organic waste biogasification facility building.

In addition to producing 2,400 kWh of electricity through power generation facilities, applying the Anammox process, which treats wastewater without oxygen, is expected to reduce costs such as power and chemical treatment expenses by up to 900 million KRW annually.

The city plans to complete administrative procedures such as environmental impact assessment and implementation plan approval, start construction in March 2023, and complete the project by October 2025.

Lee Geun-hee, Director of the Environmental Policy Office of the city, said, “This project is expected to greatly contribute to the stable processing of waste by expanding the public processing rate of food waste to 60%, as well as achieving triple benefits such as power generation and fiscal savings.” He added, “We will strive for smooth project promotion to contribute to carbon neutrality by establishing a resource circulation system using organic waste.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.