Kitchen Waste Resource Utilization and Harmless Treatment Plant Project of Nanning City

Background Information

In July, 2011, four ministries and commissions including the National Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development jointly issued a Notice on Approval of the Kitchen Waste Resource Utilization and Harmless Treatment Pilot Implementation Program and Determination as Pilot Cities (Districts) of 33 Cities (Districts). Nanning was among the first group of pilot cities.

Goals of the Initiative

The Kitchen Waste Resource Utilization and Harmless Treatment Plant Project of Nanning City adopted a PPP Mode for the first time in the country based on cooperation between the government and private industry, with the objective of achieving 100 percent resource utilization and harmless treatment of kitchen waste in Nanning.

The bank financing obtained from China Construction Bank on the basis of cooperation relieves the financial pressure of the local government and provides rich experience for the construction of a PPP mode for kitchen waste treatment projects all over the country.

On October 16, 2012, the Government of Nanning entrusted the Nanning Administration Bureau to sign the BOT Project Concession Agreement with Bioland Group which was determined by open tendering to be the only company in Nanning engaged in the collection, transportation and disposal services of kitchen waste.

The Nanning program is a mature and replicable kitchen waste treatment project. One of its advantages is that its successful application of the PPP Mode solved the financial problems of waste treatment, and another is that the waste was treated by classes: kitchen waste, sludge, sewage and rural organic waste; which meets national standards and maintains stable operation. It is a good model for the comprehensive treatment of organic waste and recycling in economic and industrial parks.

The citywide kitchen waste collection and transportation work was started officially on March19, 2015.

In September, 2015, the quantity of collection and transportation of kitchen waste in Nanning exceeded 225 tons a day. 

Parties and Partners to the Initiative

•Strong Support from the Municipal Commission of Development and Reform, City Administration Bureau, Food and Drug Administration

The Nanning Municipal Commission of Development and Reform is responsible for the primary approval and relevant coordination work of the project. The Nanning Administration Bureau is responsible for facilitating the early development and execution of waste collection and transportation. It supervises and manages activities including kitchen waste collection, transportation and disposal following the specific organizational and implementation procedures of Method for Management of Kitchen Wastes in Nanning City.

•Guangxi Bioland, as a subordinate company of Bioland Environmental Technologies Group, has full and complete responsibility for the project.

Through continuous development, more than 2,600 restaurants in Nanning have been contracted; the daily quantity of kitchen waste collection and transportation has increased from 30 tons to more than 220 tons. With continuous improvement of management and treatment systems, and comprehensive application of multiple advanced treatment technologies, and upon the breaking of technical bottlenecks, the “Nanning Mode” for recycling utilization of kitchen waste resources has been established.

Resources Used for Implementation

•Source of funds: investment from the Finance Department of Nanning, fund of crowd funding among enterprises, and state subsidy.

The infrastructure of the Kitchen Waste Resource Utilization and Harmless Treatment Plant Project of Nanning is funded by the Finance Department of Nanning. A substantial amount of funding is also provided by the central and local financial departments for kitchen waste collection, transportation and treatment.

•Technical support: cooperation with various universities, improving technical levels of project operation

With the cooperation of Guangxi University, Xi’an Jiaotong University and other universities, the technologies of diesel manufacture from grease, composting by biogas residues and purification of biogas among others were researched to provide technical support for the treatment and resource utilization of kitchen waste.

•Human resource: universities, communities, media, combining education with recreation

An agreement has been signed between Guangxi University and Guangxi Bioland Renewable Energy Limited Liability Company under which they will jointly establish an employment base, a practice base, an engineering technical research center and an industrial research cooperation base, all of which will provide talents for the kitchen project. Primary school students are invited to visit the kitchen waste treatment plants in Nanning, where they gain general knowledge on environmental protection through interactive activities and by reading the cartoon versions of environmental protection brochures. The visits help realize the goal of cultivating the idea among young people of turning waste into wealth.

Innovation for the Initiative

This project is innovative. It has researched and developed multiple patented “Pretreatment + Anaerobic Fermentation” technologies by applying Belgian OWS anaerobic fermentation treatment technology and the automatic separation technology of the American DODA Biomass separator at the pretreatment stage. The technologies include four utility model patents and five patents still pending; the cutting-edge technologies are more compatible with China’s national conditions and have solved the flow direction problem of kitchen waste. Illegal cooking oil is made into crude grease in the grease extraction workshop, and then sold for use as a raw material in chemical plants after rough processing. The inorganic part in the waste is recovered through the biomass separator for transport to a landfill plant; the organic part is converted to biogas by anaerobic fermentation and made into compressed natural gas (CNG) by a purification system for commercial purposes; the resulting biogas residue is made into nutrient soil for sale. Waste water is discharged after treatment and the odor in the plant area is treated intensively and then discharged after meeting the standards for harmless and resource-based treatment of kitchen waste.

In the last five years, the municipal party committee and municipal government have increased their input to strongly promote the implementation of waste classification, improve the management and treatment system and break the policy bottlenecks. By applying multiple advanced treatment technologies, cultivating and supporting the enterprises and breaking the technical bottlenecks, the Nanning kitchen project has been constructed as a specific method, that is, the “Nanning Mode”, in the kitchen waste field noted for overload collection and transportation, sustainable stable operation and application of a PPP Mode. 

Innovation has been applied in

This innovative project has formed its own unique Nanning features in terms of its construction, operation, technology, and management. The operation mode consisted of specialized waste collection and transportation teams, standardized services, information-based management, vehicle observation and automation (vehicles are equipped with on-board GPS, cameras and other facilities), mature treatment technologies and sustainable stable operation. It is recognized as the “Nanning Mode” by the industry and media, which has given it widespread influence. Since the construction of the project, Nanning has been visited by domestic and foreign leaders, experts, students and restaurant representatives more than 100 times.

Obstacles and Solutions for Innovation

During the implementation of the project, there have been major challenges in the areas of collection & transportation, supervision & regulation and unsound by-product markets.

•Challenges in Collection & Transportation: There are a total of 13,000 restaurants in Nanning, but only about 2,000 of them have signed contracts with Guangxi Bioland Company for kitchen waste collection and transportation. Although the kitchen waste treatment is supported by some parties, the challenge in collection and transportation is caused by the lack of environmental protection awareness and the unchanged views on environmental protection held by some restaurants.

•Challenge in Supervision & Regulation: the large number of restaurants in Nanning are widely distributed and create large kitchen waste output, which has created a  challenge in supervision and regulation of kitchen waste treatment that must be urgently solved . To face this challenge, the Intelligent Kitchen Waste Supervision and Regulation Platform constructed with 7.32 million yuan invested by the Nanning Government has brought the processing of kitchen waste from production source to disposal terminal within the scope of supervision and regulation, and encouraged restaurants to hand over kitchen waste voluntarily.

Outcomes and Assessments

•Systematic and Efficient Collection and Transportation System. As of September, 2015, the daily collection and transportation quantity of kitchen waste in the Nanning project had increased from 30 tons to more than 220 tons, which exceeded the design demand and realized saturated production, a rare outcome among the kitchen waste treatment projects across the country.

•Successful Application of PPP Cooperation Mode. PPP is the joint name of a series of cooperation modes between public sectors and private sectors including BOT and BOO, and is a project construction mode strongly advocated by the country. The Nanning project applies the BOT mode in construction. By cooperating with China Construction Bank, the Nanning kitchen project obtains bank financing and satisfies funding demands, relieving the financial pressure on local government.

•Mature Treatment Technology. The automatic separation technology adopted by this project achieves the efficient separation of organic substance and inorganic substance with efficiency over 95 percent. The separation technology can be used for the treatment of kitchen and domestic wastes, at a rate of up to 50t/h and a space commitment of only five square meters. 

•High Satisfaction of Residents. The Kitchen Waste Resource Utilization and Harmless Treatment Plant Project of Nanning has turned the city’s kitchen wastes into usable biogas and oil and reduced environmental pollution. It has had a strong effect on the environment of residential areas by eliminating kitchen waste run-out, spillage, dripping, leakage and odor during the collection and transportation of kitchen waste. The uniform collection and transportation of kitchen waste has obtained the support of both restaurants and the general public.  

Kitchen waste has been eliminated as a food for the feeding of pigs and livestock, ensuring healthier and greener food for people and an improvement in public health. The management of kitchen waste by the environmental sanitation department has been optimized and the people’s environmental protection awareness has been improved. 

Methods Applied

The Setting-up of Intelligent Kitchen Waste Supervision and Regulation Platform of Nanning. In the face of a huge number of restaurants and collection and transportation teams, the traditional method of “Personalized Site Supervision" can no longer satisfy management demands. In order to strengthen the supervision and regulation of the whole process of collection, transportation and disposal of kitchen waste as well as strengthen the scientific approach to its treatment, Nanning has constructed the Intelligent Kitchen Waste Supervision and Regulation Platform. The entire process of kitchen waste disposal from production source to terminal may now be appropriately supervised and regulated.

Specialized Collection and Transportation Teams. To achieve the described results, we have put in place specialized and uniformed waste collection and transportation teams, standardized services, information-based management, and vehicle observation and automation using on-board GPS and cameras.