Negotiations under way to sell Jordanian biogas to Finland  

(MENAFN - Jordan Times) ZARQA — The Jordan Biogas Company in Ruseifa is currently conducting negotiations with the government of Finland to sell biogas generated from the Ruseifa landfill, the company's director, Hatem Ababneh, said on Thursday.

"Selling the biogas to Finland is an outcome of Jordan signing the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in 1992 and the Kyoto Protocol, which allow industrialised countries with a greenhouse gas reduction commitment to invest in emission-reducing projects in developing countries," Ababneh told reporters, during a tour of the company's headquarters yesterday organised by the Ministry of Environment.

Jointly owned by the Greater Amman Municipality and the Central Electricity Generating Company, the biogas plant was established in 1997 and started operating in June 2000.

The plant reduces methane emissions by utilising solid waste for generating electricity and producing organic fertilisers.

The factory, expected to reduce 1.4 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions annually, generates 20,000 megawatts of electricity annually, thus limiting the emission of 5,000 tonnes of methane and saving 6,000 tonnes of diesel for the use of generating electricity.

"The plant absorbs the gases emitted from the Ruseifa landfill, 60 per cent of which is methane, one of the major gases causing climate change," Ababneh said.

The ministry recently carried out a study to identify sources and absorption of greenhouse gas emissions in the Kingdom, which revealed that garbage dumps emit some 400,000 tonnes of methane annually.

Another project targeting the reduction of emission of greenhouse gases is the Samra Electric Power Generating Company, which generates up to 24 per cent of the country's electricity needs by using heat and gases produced from electricity generation machines.

The project, which started operating in 2005, generates around 330 megawatts of electricity per hour.

Environment Ministry Secretary General Fares Juneidi, Environment Police Department Director Colonel Abdullah Abdullat and the ministry's spokesperson Isa Shboul took part in the tour.