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Corporate Development and Strategy Divisional Manager of Barbados Port Incorporated, Captain Karl Branch.

ENERGY POTENTIAL

If needed, the new incinerator system proposed for the Bridgetown Port can be used to convert locally produced garbage to energy.

However, this discussion has not yet been held, says Corporate Development and Strategy Divisional Manager of Barbados Port Incorporated, Captain Karl Branch.

Addressing yesterday’s ‘Turning Up the Heat on Waste’ Virtual Town Hall Meeting on Waste to Energy Incineration, he responded to a query as to whether the incinerator would be open for use for garbage produced by the island’s wider population during the low cruise volume months.

Unable to give a definitive answer, Branch said such a decision would have to be made by officials outside of the port.

“We will have to engage the Ministry of Health and get a third party EPD, but currently the incinerator is set to operate efficiently given our low volume and our highest expected volume. The capability is there technically, but that is a conversation that goes far outside just the Port and at this critical juncture, we cannot speak definitively on what will happen, but we certainly have the capacity and capability to do so if need be,” he stressed.

Like its predecessor, the new incinerator, is to be used for cargo and cruise waste. However, as the new system burns the waste, it will generate energy for supplying some of the Port’s energy needs.

While the Port typically handles between 2 400 to 3 000 metric tonnes of waste per month, Branch said the new system will be able to accommodate the growth of the cargo and cruise business.

“The current incinerator we have was a 75-tonne incinerator and was deployed at a time when the Port was seeing between 35 and 50 tonnes per day, but the Port has far exceeded that because of its business operations both in terms of cargo operations and cruise …So we also took into account the expected growth in Port business to ensure that over its 25-year life span the incinerator is able to accommodate volumes in excess of what we have now,” he  continued.

Branch added this expansion would also ensure the Port adhered to the additions within the Marpol Convention- the main international agreement covering prevention of pollution of the marine environment by ships from operational or accidental causes.

“According to the Marpol Convention, which has become even more strict over the years, the waste reception facilities of the Port must also be in a position to accept a greater range of waste. So typically we accept what is dry waste, but with the additions to the convention if we are to operate as a homeport facility, we must accept greater ranges as well, hence the increase in volume,” he stressed. (JMB)

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