Xi'an promotes domestic waste recycling

Xi'an's waste treatment facilities are being upgraded through an "incineration substitution + classification promotion" strategy, transforming waste into valuable resources.

Gaoling domestic waste harmless treatment incineration cogeneration project, serving five key areas, including Gaoling district, Weiyang district, and Chanba International Port, is equipped with three 750-ton mechanical grate furnaces, two 25-megawatt steam turbines, and two 30-MW generators, forming a closed-loop treatment chain of "incineration-power generation-heating". Its daily domestic waste processing capacity reaches 2,250 tons, handling nearly one-fifth of Xi'an's waste processing tasks.

The project adopts medium temperature and sub-high voltage high-efficiency power generation technology, with a power generation efficiency of 27 percent. After incineration of each ton of domestic waste, it can generate 600 kilowatt hours of electricity, which can be used by ordinary urban households for more than two months. The annual on-grid electricity of the project is nearly 350 million kWh.

In addition to generating power, the heat produced by incineration is used for centralized heating. The project can provide stable heating for a building area of 3.4 million square meters in Gaoling urban area. During the 2024-25 heating season, the project's centralized heating capacity reached 880,000 gigajoules, equivalent to saving 30,000 tons of standard coal annually and reducing sulfur dioxide emissions by 5.88 tons, nitrogen oxide emissions by 16.47 tons, and carbon dioxide emissions by 96,800 tons.

Xi'an's transformation in governance methods to explore effective waste management not only improves the urban ecological environment, but also serves as a scientific and operational sample for similar cities across the country, injecting new momentum into the carbon peak and carbon neutrality strategies.