Croatia develops its first waste-to-energy plant at Bikarac

Šibenik is planning Croatia’s first waste-to-energy plant, with the proposed facility to be built at the Bikarac regional waste management center in Šibenik-Knin County.

The plant would recover energy from fuel produced from waste and sludge from wastewater-treatment facilities. Croatia’s Environmental Protection and Energy Efficiency Fund has provided €3 million for a feasibility study. Mayor Željko Burić said the study showed the project was fully viable.

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We would practically connect the industrial zone and the plant into one unified, complete system for producing and using heat and electricity.

The nearby Podi industrial zone gives the proposal a potential customer base. More than 70 companies operate there, employing nearly 2,000 people. Burić said businesses had expressed interest in buying the heat the plant could produce, creating a possible integrated system linking the industrial zone with heat and electricity generation.

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What will we do with it? Search again for someone to take it from us, while we pay them, instead of turning it into a system that produces energy from it and charges for that energy.

The project could also involve capturing the carbon dioxide produced by the plant and using it in further production of green hydrogen and methanol. Burić described that possibility as a way to create a complete system.

He argued that waste management centers must find a use for the material left after mechanical-biological treatment. Instead of paying another party to take it away, he said, Croatia could turn it into energy and generate revenue. The site already exists and complies with planning rules, but the project still needs financing. Burić said public institutions should fund it, although concession financing remains another option.

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If we want to manage our future, we must get rid of both waste and water pollution.