Vilnius Combined Heat and Power Plant (Vilnius CHP) has concluded a three-year contract with the company Vakarų Krova for the management of fly ash generated during waste-to-energy production. The ash will be handed over to a Norwegian subcontractor, NOAH, which will use it to help restore the landscape of the Norwegian island of Lågøya.

Vilnius CHP CEO Saulius Barauskas notes that the plant under construction will not only prevent 160,000 tonnes of waste from entering Lithuanian landfills each year, but will also contribute to another environmentally sustainable project — restoring the landscape of Lågøya.

In Norway, sophisticated technology is used to mix the fly ash with acid and water from industrial waste to form a plaster-like material, which is used to fill craters left by limestone mining on the island, returning the restored land to public use. NOAH has also recently announced plans to extract salts from hazardous fly ash and received a grant of almost EUR 1 million from Innovation Norway to develop the technology.

Vilnius CHP is estimated to generate approximately 11,000 tonnes of flue gas treatment residue and fly ash annually that has no use in Lithuania. The total value of the three-year contract with Vakarų Krova is up to EUR 4.2 million, excluding VAT.