Mediterranean Action Plan

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ENERGY AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN THE MEDITERRANEAN
Two biogas plants (20m 3 and 100 m 3 ) 13 owned by the Ministry of Agriculture for cow
waste at Gotta, near Damascus;
Two biogas plants (12 m 3 and 35 m 3 ) in Ezraa village, Daraa. The daily output of the
larger unit is 8 m 3 ;
Two biogas plants of 12 m 3 in Der Alfradese, Hama;
Two family biogas plants of 12 m 3 and 14 m 3 are planned to provide gas to 13 families;
Four biogas digesters were transferred from India and tested in Damascus. There are
plans to construct four plants in the south of Syria under the supervision of the Ministry of
Agriculture.
Under the Mediterranean Environment Technical Assistance Programme (METAP), the City
of Aleppo commissioned a feasibility study with grant assistance from the European
Investment Bank (EIB) for a solid waste management project. The study 14 had three
elements:
Assessment of the current municipal waste handling and disposal arrangements, and the
institutional framework;
Preparation of a solid waste management plan with a 15 year horizon plus separate
provision for inert and construction waste;
Definition of similar surveys and waste management plans in locations with industrial and
hazardous waste.
The study completed in 2001, is expected to result in Syria's first urban waste-to-energy
power plant.
Some of the lessons that are relevant to Syria from the global developments in bio-energy
technologies are:
Biomass could be an important source for providing heat and power to the Syrian energy
sector and potential of this sector needs to be explored further. More demonstration and
pilot projects need to be promoted using biomass technologies;
Although there has been some experience with biological conversion of biomass to
energy through the biogas route in Syria. The thermo-chemical route has not been
pursued so far in Syria. There is scope for more incineration and pyrolysis projects in
Syria;
Syria may proceed and set up a urban waste based power plant in one of the major cities
and could start with Aleppo where the process has already begun.
NERC is now responsible to widespread using biomass energy through special directory
specialized in Biomass energy developments needs, tools, projects, and researches. The
aim now is to find a financing organization to support R&D and executive projects regarding
CDM in rural areas.
5) Urban Waste Resources
Over 50 % of the Syrian populations live in urban areas and approximately 47 % of the
populations live in Aleppo and Damascus. Since there is a concentration of a large
percentage of population in the major cities, there appears to be opportunity to use the
municipal waste for energy purposes.
The solid waste generated in the cities at Damascus and Aleppo are over 1000 tones per
day 15 . Currently the urban waste in Damascus is collected and transported to a treatment
plan at Najha where it is converted to fertilizer. The next table shows the production of
domestic waste from the main cities of Syria. 7797 tones of waste are produced per day.
13 Digester volume
14 undertaken by Cowiconsult
15 Present status and policy on the development of renewable energy sources in the Syrian Arab Republic, draft, Abed-el-hadi
Zein.