Yangquan city in North China's Shanxi province has committed itself to the harmless treatment of garbage and the comprehensive utilization of resources, to further reduce waste emissions and achieve resource recycling.

Costing 525 million yuan ($75.06 million), a new domestic garbage incineration power plant, the first of its kind in Yangquan, is a landmark initiative, local officials said.

They said it is an important circular economy industrial project in the city, marking Yangquan's solid step towards harmless and recycling disposal of its domestic garbage.

"Domestic waste is transported to the garbage finished product warehouse for incineration after crushing, iron removal and sorting," said Wang Jianping, chief engineer of Shanxi Rongguang Energy Co, which built the plant.

"Construction waste, ironware and sand waste is transported to landfill after solidification," Wang added.

The garbage disposal facility adopts circulating fluidized bed incineration technology.

The heat from the garbage incineration generates steam through a boiler and the dry steam enters the steam turbine to drive the generator which then produces electricity after processes such as water vapor separation, Wang said. 

Waste residues after incineration -- such as slag, fly ash and landfill leachate -- can also be turned into "treasure" through treatment, he added.

For instance, slag can be used as building materials for street bricks and the landfill leachate after treatment can be recycled as industrial water.

Currently, the domestic garbage incineration power plant has been conducting trials, treating nearly 500 metric tons of domestic waste in the city every day. 

To ensure the eco-friendly and safe operation of the project, each boiler in the plant has been installed with a flue gas monitoring system connected to the network of the local environmental protection department.

The project is expected to go into full operation at the end of August, according to Bai Ping, general manager of Shanxi Rongguang Energy Co.

When fully up and running, about 200,000 tons of garbage will be processed each year, saving 28,600 tons of standard coal and generating electricity of 50 million kWh annually.