Speaker Froilan C. Tenorio, Covenant-Saipan, was invited to Japan recently to see the latest technology in managing solid waste.
Called “gas distillation combustion,” it involves the incineration of general or specific waste while preventing secondary pollution through complete combustion.
Just recently patented in the U.S., the incinerator uses a dry distillation furnace. It repeatedly presses the waste to discharge ash heaped on the bottom of the dry distillation furnace.
In an interview last week, Tenorio said Hiroshi Tagawa and Isamu Tokuichi, chairman and vice chairman of Sun Pacific Holdings Corp., invited him to the plant that manufactures the incinerating machine.
Sun Pacific representatives, Tenorio said, came here recently to see the island’s solid waste situation. The firm wants to know if its products can help address the CNMI’s needs.
Noting the limited life span of the Marpi landfill, Tenorio said the gas distillation incinerating machine is worth looking at.
The CNMI still uses the landfill system in managing solid waste and about $15.1 million has been invested since the landfill along with the transfer station in Lower Base were built seven years ago.
Since then, an additional $18 million has been spent on the island’s solid waste management which remains a big challenge.
Citing Guam’s landfill problems, Tenorio said it is important to explore now the types of solid waste systems that fit the fragile environment of the CNMI.
Next month, officials of the Department of Public Works and other concerned agencies will see for themselves the Sun Pacific machines in Japan.
How it works
It burns garbage without producing unwanted pollutants into the atmosphere. The solid wastes are burned in a furnace. Then, solids and molten metals are extracted. The discharged gases are passed through a boiler for extracting heat and generating steam. The discharged gases are converted to liquid by sequential cooling. Then, “liquefied” products are removed while preventing the discharge of gases into the atmosphere.
The remaining gases are passed through a second boiler for further extraction of heat and steam generation.
