A view inside Vietnam’s largest waste-to-energy plant

The first generator of the Soc Son plant that is designed to generate 15MW per day officially hooks up to the national power grid on July 25. It burns around 1,000 tonnes of waste, around one-seventh of the amount of trash produced in the capital each day, in order to generate electricity.

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The Soc Son waste-to-energy project was initially approved by the Hanoi administration in late 2017 with a total investment of VND7 trillion, equivalent to US$303 million.

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The plant features a total of five combustion chambers and three generators. Two combustion chambers and one generator are going into operation in the first phase.

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The second phase will see two additional combustion chambers and another generator be put into operation. The remaining chamber and generator will begin working ahead in the third phase.

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Once completed, the site will be the largest in Vietnam with a capacity of handling 4,000 tonnes of dry solid waste per day. It is anticipated that the plant will generate up to 75MW of electricity per day.

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The plant is set to consume up to 80% of the capital’s daily landfill waste, a move which will greatly contribute to reducing environmental pollution throughout the city due to overloaded garbage occurring at local landfill sites.

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A combustion chamber consists of three floors.

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One generator is put into operation in the initial phase.

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With 4,000 tonnes of trash burned each day, around 75MW are expected to be generated. The plant will use between 15% and 20% of this amount and then sell the rest to the state-run Electricity of Vietnam group.

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According to the capital’s master plan ahead to 2030, Hanoi will have a total of 17 waste treatment zones. However, many projects have been delayed due to difficulties in site clearance.