French use household waste for heating and resource recovery

By André Larané, Technical Freelance Writer, Paris

In Paris, France, the Compagnie Parisienne de Chauffage Urbain supplies several thousand homes with hot water from incinerators located on the outskirts of the French capital. The system is claimed to be a source of low cost and pollution-free energy. In Nantes, on the Loire River estuary, the Arc en Ciel incineration plant produces electricity which it resells to the public distributor. It also provides steam to a neighboring metal refinery.

The investment required to build a medium-sized incinerator with a nominal capacity of five to twenty metric tonnes per hour is around three million euros ($2.83 million US) per metric tonne/hour of capacity, with half devoted to the treatment of flue gases and the recovery of energy. Taking into account current regulations for the protection of the environment and the treatment of flue gases, incineration costs around 80 to 100 euros ($75-$94 US) per metric tonne of household waste.

The French love of art is reflected in the Saint-Ouen incineration plant, north of Paris.

In France, where incineration is widespread, large companies are using their expertise to develop clean and economical technologies. Their objective is to optimize the combustion of waste in order to obtain a maximum of energy and a minimum of ash and solid residues.

Recently built incineration plants attest to the French taste for eye-pleasing architecture, even in a waste treatment facility. In Saint-Ouen, on the edge of Paris, the incineration plant operated by the Tiru company is lit up at night like a cathedral. Nantes, the home town of Jules Verne, with its Arc en Ciel (rainbow) plant, even houses exhibitions of contemporary sculpture. The plant was built by Onyx, part of the CGEA group. Onyx operates the largest incineration plant in the world in Florida, near Miami. This facility processes a million metric tonnes of waste per year.

This article has been abridged.