Bee’ah to make construction materials from recyclables
Firm alongwith Seramic Materials will recycle ashes from municipal solid waste incinerators into construction materials
![Construction materials will be manufactured from ashes from municipal solid waste incinerators. [representational]](https://www.constructionweekonline.com/public/styles/full_img/public/images/2020/01/16/construction-generic-pixabay.jpg?itok=-AduNG16 "Construction materials will be manufactured from ashes from municipal solid waste incinerators. [representational]")
Sharjah-based public-private partnership firm Bee’ah has inked a deal with UAE-based startup Seramic Materials that makes sustainable ceramics from recycled materials to explore potential of recycling ashes from municipal solid waste incinerators (MSWI) into construction materials.
Signed at the World Future Energy Summit during the Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week 2020, the deal will recycle ashes from MSWI from Bee’ah’s waste-to-energy plant into sustainable, affordable, and durable materials that can be used for construction activities.
The companies will explore ways to extract bottom and fly ash from any solid residue waste produces through incineration that will be generated at Emirates Waste to Energy Company’s (EWTE) — a joint venture between Masdar and Bee’ah — Sharjah waste-to-energy plant.
EWTE’s new waste-to-energy plant in Sharjah will divert more than 300,000 tonnes of municipal solid waste from landfill each year and contribute in supporting the cultural capital of the UAE’s effort to become a zero-waste city by 2021.
The facility converts waste into produced heat which will be used to drive a turbine and generate up to 30MW of electricity, which will power up to 28,000 homes. The flue gas of the waste processing will be environmentally treated before being released into the atmosphere, while the incinerator will burn all municipal solid waste, leaving behind combustion residue – 25% of the original mass will remain as bottom ash and approximately 2.5% will be fly ash – which Seramic Materials will use to manufacture new products.
Commenting on the initiative, group CEO of Bee’ah and chairman of Emirates Waste to Energy Company, HE Khaled Al Huraimel, said: “By adopting a holistic approach to sustainability, we are leading the charge in the UAE towards a truly zero-waste solution and a circular economy, in which we reinvent and innovate new products made by waste.”
Meanwhile, co-founder and CEO of Seramic Materials, Dr. Nicolas Calvet, said: “Once the two UAE incinerators are operational, MSWI ash will rapidly become a major mineral waste in the UAE by quantity produced with about 800,000 tons per year, ranking MSWI ash as third just after demolition concrete and alumina red mud.”