Waste not want not as dump generates electricity

METHANE gas produced by Dublin's Dunsink dump is being converted to electricity for domestic use in a scheme which is to be extended to seven other dumps around the country.

Dunsink power station, which is providing electricity to some 5,000 houses in the Fingal area, was formally switched on yesterday by the chairwoman of Fingal County Council, Ms Anne Devitt, and the junior minister with responsibility for energy, Mr Emmet Stagg.

The scheme is a joint venture between the Dublin company, British building firm, George Wimpey plc, which has been operating similar stations on British sites since the early 1980s.

The joint company, Wimpey EPC, has invested £2.5 million in the Dunsink project, and plans a total investment of £10 million when schemes at three other Dublin dumps and sites in Galway, Limerick, Waterford and Cork are developed.

The electricity is being sold into the national grid and the company predicts when all eight stations are operating, they will power 25,000 houses. The Dunsink site is expected to produce sufficient gas for its four generators for 12-15 years, with one of the four still operating in 20 years.

The scheme exploits the natural decay of vegetable matter in, the site's five million tonnes of waste, which produces methane and carbon dioxide in roughly equal amounts. The gas has about 50-60 per cent of the energy value of natural gas, and is recovered by means of connected vertical wells with perforated wall casing.

The collected gas is cooled and drawn, from the site by a central pumping and treatment unit, before being delivered to the generators. Electricity is generated at 380 volts and is transformed to 10,000 and, finally 38,000 volts before passing through the substation and into the ESB's system.

The ban on day trips for female prisoners in Mountjoy Jail remains in place, despite the rearrest of a woman whoa absconded from the prison lash week while visiting her child in Blanchardstown, Dublin.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Justice said the ban was being reviewed and a decision would be made shortly. The prisoner was returned to Mountjoy by gardai on Tuesday.