Plan to generate energy from landfill gases

Dubai: Bad smells and gases coming off landfills in the UAE are going to be harvested and used to make energy while lowering the country's carbon footprint, Gulf News has learnt.

Methane gas is 21 times more harmful than carbon dioxide and without being controlled is contributing to global warming. Methane recovery projects serve to capture the gases emitted by waste rotting in landfills and then use the gas to create electricity.

EcoSecurities, recently set up in Dubai, which works by originating, developing and trading carbon credits generated from greenhouse gas emission reduction projects, is working with the landfill operator so carbon credits can be created from the methane coming off the landfill and sold.

Opportunities in the UAE for carbon trading lie mainly in the oil and gas industries however smaller projects can also be very lucrative, said Marc Stuart, co-founder and director of EcoSecurities, currently in the UAE for the World Future Energy Summit which opened in Abu Dhabi on Monday.

“We take on the financial risk by developing and creating a clean development mechanism (CDM) project and then are commissioned to manage and trade the carbon credits derived from the project,'' said Stuart.

Dubai Multi Commodities Centre (DMCC) and EcoSecurities recently signed an alliance agreement with Dana Gas PJSC and Crescent Petroleum of Sharjah, to jointly develop emissions reduction projects in the oil and gas sector, under the Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism (CDM).

Carbon credits created in the UAE are mainly traded in Japan, Europe or to some major banks who then sell them again, said Stuart. “The end users, the emitters, are in Europe but Tokyo also buys a lot because there is a lot of carbon there,'' he said.

Under the Kyoto protocol, carbon trading allows countries with carbon reduction targets to reach, to buy credits from another country with a carbon reducing clean development mechanism project.

A carbon credit, known as certified emission reduction (CER) amounts to 1 ton of carbon dioxide equivalent (Co2e). A project can reduce as many emissions as 40,000 CERs to 2.5 million CERs a year.

“There is an enormous resource transfer for emissions trading. It has already taken all HFC Refrigerant [toxic] gases out of the world,'' said Stuart.

Souheil Abboud, EcoSecurities' Middle East regional manager said the location of the landfill cannot be revealed at this time as the project is being finalised. A handful of landfills across the region have been earmarked for similar clean development mechanisms.

He added that CDM Voluntary Emissions Reductions (VER) are available for businesses in countries that have not ratified the Kyoto Protocol and so cannot earn any certificates for reducing emissions. VER allows businesses that are voluntarily reducing their emissions to be recognised for it. “We hope Turkey and the Middle East to be major players,'' he said.