Location: New Cairo, Egypt
Deliverable: Concept master plan for residential development
Key Features: sustainable infrastructure master planning, district heating, municipal composting with heat recovery
Sheikh Kalifa City was born from the need to establish affordable and sustainable housing for young professionals and families. The 220ha development is part of New Cairo City, located on the upper plateau adjacent to the Nile Valley, and consists of five mixed use community centres surrounded by residential clusters within walkable distances.
Because New Cairo is on a plateau above the Nile Valley cooling is required for summer, as well as heating in winters, as evenings and winter days often drop below 15oC. Cairo and New Cairo are currently facing a municipal solid waste issue; waste generation rates are at record highs because of dramatic increases in population and the Municipalities are searching for waste reduction strategies and landfill alternatives. Since roughly 50% of residential household waste is organic and/or compostable, the project team recommended heat recovery from an industrial compost system by Alpheco Ltd, wherein heat is recovered from the composting process, which can reach up to 70oC, and stored in a Borehole Thermal Energy Storage (BTES) system. This heat source can then be fed to the homes as their primary source of heating through a district heating system. The resultant compost could be used in municipal landscaping or sold to farmers and homeowners to generate revenue and reduce reliance on fossil fuel based artificial fertilizers.
First approximation calculations revealed that composting the organic waste from H.H. Sheikh Kalifa City would heat approximately 1/3 of the City’s homes. Therefore, to meet the entire development’s needs, the composting plant could use organic/compostable waste from the larger community supply and would further reduce the amount sent to landfill. Integrating solid waste management, heat recovery, and storage into the master planning process enabled the project team to find an innovative design solution for two project challenges: an overloaded landfill and a sustainable heating source.
