A company in Türkiye that uses 30% of approximately 55,000 tons of domestic waste collected in Türkiye and converts it into electricity raises awareness in agriculture by using the waste heat obtained from the garbage in greenhouses.
Ali Riza Oner, Business Development Director of the company, said that as a company, they provide services in the fields of rehabilitation of landfills, operation of sanitary landfills, energy production from methane gas, disposal of hazardous and medical wastes, and recycling of packaging wastes. Noting that the company has 13 facilities in 11 cities in Türkiye, Oner said, “Six of them are fully integrated, and the others are operating on field gas.
Wastes collected by municipalities are brought to our facilities and subjected to mechanical separation. Organic wastes are decomposed and converted into methane gas, and electrical energy is obtained from this gas. Recyclable materials such as plastic, paper, packaging, and aluminum are pressed and sent to raw material factories. We produce an average of 100 MW of electricity per hour in our 13 facilities.”
Explaining that while they generate electricity with methane gas obtained from the garbage in solid waste sites, they also use the waste heat produced by gas engines for soilless agriculture in the greenhouses they set up, and said: “The biggest expense item in greenhouses is heating. We obtain this heat from waste.
We produce plants such as tomato, cucumber, eggplant, golden strawberry, lettuce, and orchid in our greenhouse in Ankara Mamak. We produce potato seeds by the hydroponic method. We established a tissue culture laboratory. In this way, we produce our own plants without playing with their genetics. We also developed a vertical farming project. A plant needs soil, water, light, and air to thrive. We use coconut shells instead of soil and LED lamps instead of daylight. We are producing plants with very high yields regardless of the weather conditions.”
Source: Dunya