'Wastenizer' project to transform waste to clean energy

The new “Wasterizer” project from Dubai Municipality will be able to treat solid wastes of all types of solid waste using artificial intelligence and smart technology, Dubai Municipality has announced.

The Wastenizer project – which comes under the 10X initiative of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai – is designed to turn the emirate’s waste into the world’s first decentralized source of clean energy, disrupting the use of conventional transportation and the existing waste management process.

According to Dubai Municipality, the decentralised waste treatment platform will raise the temperature of the waste, resulting in a breakdown of its chemical components to provide environmentally-friendly energy to the local electricity grid. The Wastenizer devices can also produce 17,500 tonnes of “good ash” that can be used to manufacture green concrete.

Each year, Dubai produces approximately 3.5 million tonnes of waste, and uses 7,560 square-metres of land as landfills. Additionally, Dubai Municipality uses 3,850 garbage collection vehicles to transport waste.

The Wastenizer is one of a number of projects from Dubai Municipality on display at the three-day Middle East Electricity Exhibition, which also includes the Dubai lamp, rain enhancement projects, and solar panels that will be installed at the Warsan and Jebel Ali Sewage Treatment plants.