Waste to Energy:The Waste Incineration Directive and its Implementation in the Netherlands

Essent operates a coal-fired power plant, called AC-9, in Geertruidenberg. A gasifier connected to AC-9 thermally treats waste wood through gasification. The waste wood Essent used is demolition and construction wood, the so-called B-wood. The gas produced through gasification is fed into the connected AC-9 where it is used as fuel. However, after the BVA’s (Besluit Verbranden Afvalstoffen) entry into force, Essent had to stop the gasification of waste wood and the subsequent use of the resulting gas as fuel. The BVA is the Dutch implementing measure of the Waste Incineration Directive (Directive 2000/76/EC, WID). According to the BVA, any power plant co-incinerating products of thermal treatment of waste is regarded as a co-incineration plant irrespective of the quality of the product. In the case of a power plant connected to a gasifier, the BVA treats the whole plant as a co-incineration plant. This raises the question of whether the plant of Essent, which is treated as a co-incineration plant by the BVA, is regarded as a co-incineration plant by the WID as well. To answer the question, first, the report dealt with the highly complicated issue of what constitutes waste. Second, it studied how the WID defines incineration and co-incineration plant. Third, it analysed the consistency of the BVA with the WID and the EC Treaty. Fourth, to find out whether the purified producer gas from the gasifier can be characterized as a ‘clean’ secondary fuel on which the BEES (Besluiten emissie-eisen stookinstallaties A en B) should be applicable, the properties of the gas were examined and compared with the properties of clean biomass. The report also investigated how the emissions per generated MJ looked like if the power plant is fired on only coal and on a combination of coal and producer gas. Finally, the criteria distilled from the case law of the European Court of Justice were applied to the producer gas of Essent