Goal to Be a Flagship Facility in every Respect: Singapore’s new Integrated Waste Management Facility
The Integrated Waste Management Facility (IWMF) – in tandem with the Tuas Water Reclamation Plant (Tuas WRP) – will be part of Singapore’s project to realize an innovative and sustainable solution to meet the country’s long-term solid waste management and used water treatment needs.
The world’s first integrated waste and water treatment facility to be conceptualized and planned from the ground up, Tuas Nexus, would be energy self-sufficient by harnessing synergies from Tuas WRP and IWMF, the National Environment Agency (NEA) and PUB, Singapore’s National Water Agency, informed in a joint press release in September 2020. At that time, the first phase of construction of Tuas Nexus had begun, which is set to be completed in phases from 2025 onwards.
The new Integrated Waste Management Facility is seen as an integral part of NEA’s long-term plan to meet Singapore’s solid waste management needs. In 2022, about 7.39 million tons of solid waste were generated in the Republic of Singapore; 4.19 million tons were recycled. According to the country’s statistics published in May 2023, waste generated by the non-domestic and domestic sectors increased from 5.12 million tons and 1.82 million tons in 2021 to 5.53 million tons and 1.86 million tons in 2022. The overall recycling rate was 57 percent.
In 2017, the country generated 21,107 tons of waste per day. At that time, 37 percent of this amount was incinerated at four waste-to-energy (WTE) plants and generated about three percent of Singapore’s total electricity demand. Another 60 percent was recycled, while the remaining three percent was landfilled.
With the new IWMF, the island country and city-state of Singapore aims to reach an overall recycling rate of 70 percent by 2030. Therefore, the facility will be equipped with state-of-the-art solid waste treatment technologies to improve energy and resource recovery from waste. It is Singapore’s first integrated facility to treat incinerable waste, source-segregated food waste and dewatered sludge from Tuas WRP, as well as to sort household recyclables collected under the National Recycling Programme (NRP). As reported by NEA, when in full operation, the facility will process:
- 5,800 tons per day of incinerable waste;
- 250 tons per day of household recyclables collected under National Recycling Programme;
- 400 tons per day of source-segregated food waste; and
- 800 tons per day of dewatered sludge from Tuas WRP.
In 2020, NEA had informed that the IWMF would be developed in phases. The first phase was set to be completed progressively from 2024 to 2025, while the whole facility was tentatively planned to be completed by 2028.
Participating companies
In 2020, a Keppel-led consortium received a Letter of Acceptance from the National Environment Agency for an Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) contract worth approximately 1.5 billion Singapore Dollar (1 Singapore Dollar = about 0.74 US-Dollar), for the development of a Waste-To-Energy (WTE) facility and a Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) for Singapore’s new Tuas Nexus IWMF. It was expected that the plants would be completed in 2024. The consortium consisted of Keppel Seghers Engineering Singapore Pte Ltd, the environmental engineering arm of Keppel Infrastructure, China Harbour (Singapore) Engineering Company Pte Ltd and ST Engineering Marine Ltd, the Marine arm of Singapore Technologies Engineering Ltd. Furthermore, the consortium worked closely with NEA, as well as their consultants – a multi-disciplinary consultancy team led by Black & Veatch and AECOM, in association with Ramboll, for the design, construction and commissioning of this flagship project, Keppel Seghers informed in 2020.
The internationally active planning and consulting company WSP, together with the consortium, had to manage the overall design of the new Integrated Waste Management Facility (IWMF). It “will provide design management, system integration management and interface coordination, performance requirement management and assistance in certification management. This will also include support for the preparation of the program for design and approval of design from the authorities for Procurement, FAT, construction, testing and commissioning, TOP/CSC and handover.” In the same vein, WSP had also been awarded a contract with one of the joint venture partners, China Harbour (Singapore) Engineering.
It “will also provide design consultancy services in the areas of architecture, civil & structural, MEP building services to the consortium, as well as permitting services for the project.”
(Published in GLOBAL RECYCLING Magazine 2/2024, Page 25, Photo: PUB, Singapore’s National Water Agency)
