Challenges and Technologies

Waste-to-energy

Waste recovery processes can be implemented to generate energy by burning waste; recycle metals; or produce compost, all of which help to limit societies’ growing volume of waste while preserving the environment. The Miami-Dade facility operated by Veolia Environmental Services in Florida (United States) is one of the largest waste-to-energy plants in the world. It supplies electricity to 45,000 households, recovers 3,000 metric tons of aluminum, 36,000 metric tons of steel and other metals, and produces some 80,000 metric tons of compost per year.

Angers plant: turning waste into a resource

Each year everyone in France throws out about 26 kilograms of EEEW -Electric and Electronic Equipment Waste-. In what would seem to be an impossible task, the European Union has set a target of reducing that amount to four kilograms. Yet efficient recycling and materials use recover EEEW, keeping it out of landfills. In Angers, Veolia Environmental Services has just opened an EEEW treatment plant that recovers 88% of the weight of EEEW. This is an industrial solution to waste breakdown that also helps people to rebuild their lives through employment opportunities.

Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) systems

Bus Rapid Transit systems allow local authorities to offer a revamped–and therefore optimized–system with buses that are more efficient, accessible to people with special needs, and equipped with rider information systems. They also generate lower emissions, run in dedicated bus lanes and have well-equipped stations. Veolia Transport proposes a scalable, economical and environmentally friendly solution to problems of urban congestion with Traceo, a concept that has already been adopted by Bogota, Las Vegas, York, and Rouen.

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Desalination by reverse osmosis at Ashkelon, Israel

Reverse osmosis is the most efficient technology for producing drinking water from seawater. The water flows through a membrane that rejects salts and impurities. Reverse osmosis has traditionally been a costly process, especially in terms of energy consumption. At the Ashkelon facility south of Tel Aviv, Veolia Water built and now operates the world’s largest reverse osmosis seawater desalination plant. The plant’s energy consumption has been optimized. Today, more than 1.4 million people enjoy good quality drinking water at a competitive price.

Fuel cells in Paris, France

Fuel cells are used to generate electricity and heat via an electrochemical reaction between hydrogen and oxygen. As a cogeneration process that does not involve combustion, fuel cells release no pollutant emissions and offer high energy efficiency. Veolia Energy has teamed up with the Paris public works and construction authority OPAC in a full-scale experiment to use fuels cells to provide domestic hot water for 283 subsidized housing units. The surplus energy is sold to bring down the cost of the service.

City challenges

As paradoxical as it might seem, the environmental challenge is being met in cities. Major urban centers with populations of several million require us to continually invent new procedures for cleaning and protecting the environment.
Each town is a unique case, each request a new challenge, each solution a feat. Everywhere in the world, Veolia Environnement is innovating and proposing customized solutions.