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Amsterdam to Apeldoorn
Monday June 17 - Tuesday, June 18
We biked to Apeldoorn because the city has such
ambitious goals for sustainable energy development. According to material
provided by Albert Kok of the city Environmental Department, Apeldoornıs
goal is to achieve 10 percent sustainable energy use by 2008 and then move
to 100 percent by 2020 through the use of green electricity, green gas and
green heat from biomass, sun power and other innovations.
Apeldoorn is about 50 miles southeast of Amsterdam. We biked to the city
in two half-days after leaving the capital city very late in the afternoon
on Monday. To our surprise, TV cameras and a small pack of journalists
were waiting for us as we turned into the Market square where the
municipal building sits. We were on TV last night and in the city
newspaper, the Appeldoorn Current, early in the morning.
After meeting with Mr. J.A.C.M. van Beckhoven, environmental alderman, we
had lunch and then Albert Kok served as our host for visits to two
industries in the city that are engaged in reducing the consumption of
greenhouse gasses and the use of virgin materials.
We visited TNO, a leading Netherlands public-private partnership which
does Applied Scientific Research. The Apeldoorn branch of TNO does
research on making the environment more sustainable. We spoke with
researchers who were developing the HTU process (developed by Shell) which
extracts energy from biomass. This process produces an oily liquid called,
'Biocrude.' TNO and its private partners expect to produce energy from
such materials as agricultural waste and crops specially grown for the
purpose.
Our second visit was to VAR, a regional waste recycling firm. The VAR site
is managed by a small company, (150 employees) called Veluwse Afval
Recycling. It has worked with the city of Apeldoorn for a number of years
recycling construction material into new building material. The main part
of their business now is to make compost out of the waste. The VAR site is
at a former landfill that the company is digging up. Almost 70 percent of
the old landfill contents are recycled, and the remaining 30 percent
reburied in a new, safe landfill. The compost facility uses 200,000 tons
of household refuse, tree prunings and biomass from other sources for the
production of biogas.
"Biogas can be burned directly in gas engines or fed into the gasgrid
after being upgraded to SNG (Synthetic Natural Gas)," Albert Kok
said.
Presently, the gas is used to produce electricity for the facility with
the remainder sold on the grid as "green energy." In the future,
such reclaimed gas will play a part in helping the City of Apeldoorn reach
its ambitious renewable energy goals.
Today we go back to city hall to discuss how the city has pushed
developers to build residential units with solar panels and various other
measures to save energy and water and to promote organic farming methods.
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