The Ingolstadt Waste Utilization Plant - Germany

Over the past 40 years, the Ingolstadt joint waste management authority has managed to develop its waste treatment plant from a simple waste incinerator to the largest municipal energy producer in the region.

The 1977 construction of the first two incinerator lines of the Ingolstadt Waste Treatment Plant (Müllverwertungsanlage Ingolstadt – MVA Ingolstadt) served only to reduce the volume of the waste – the energy was eradicated. It was not until the further technical development of the plant and the new building of Incinerator 3 in 1983 that the MVA progressed to become an energy producer. The unit was able to cover the power requirements of the entire plant with the recovered electrical energy and the surplus was fed into the power grid of the municipal utilities. The thermal energy was already being used as district heating, fed to the local pioneer barracks through a line that ran under the Danube River.

One measure that truly deserves a mention is the supply of the sewage sludge drying plant in the central sewage treatment plant Ingolstadt since 2007. This system is unique to Europe. It uses real residual heat for the drying of sewage sludge, thereby saving vast quantities of primary energy and CO₂ emissions. As a further positive "side-effect”, the sewage sludge is no longer used for agricultural purposes but is used as an energy source by the MVA Ingolstadt.