Covanta provides environmental services to businesses and communities. The company is partnering with the end customer, Pasco County, to invest in expanding the capacity of a waste-to-energy plant located in Spring Hill, Florida.

The plant expansion increases the total waste processed by 131,500 tons per year.

“This new contract is an important reference for Doosan Škoda Power and a major milestone in entering a complex and dynamic market,” said Josef Talhofer, area sales manager for the North American Doosan Škoda Power division.

Talhofer adds that Doosan is strengthening ties with this longstanding partner: “We continue to demonstrate to Covanta our technical competence, flexibility and willingness to support it beyond Europe.”

For this project, Doosan Škoda Power will supply a standardized single-case turbine DST-G10 with a gross power output of 15 MW together with a generator and auxiliary equipment meeting U.S. standards.

Originally published by Power Engineering International.

The company announced last week that it will extend its partnership with Ameresco for an additional eight years. Ameresco had constructed the 9.5-mile pipeline from the Palmetto Landfill to Plant Spartanburg. BMW estimates that more than 9,200 tons of CO2 emissions have been reduced each year over the course of the project and nearly 74,000 tons of CO2 emissions will be reduced over the next eight years.

“The old saying that ‘one person’s trash is another person’s treasure’ is literally true for our landfill gas-to-energy project,” quipped Manfred Pernitsch, V.P. of Real Estate Management and Environmental Protection for BMW Group Americas.

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), landfills are the third-largest human-generated source of methane emissions in the United States. Methane gas is a natural byproduct of the decomposition of organic materials in landfills.

Instead of “flaring” or burning off the methane gas, the BMW project captures the methane produced at the landfill using dozens of gas extraction wells.  The gas is then treated to remove moisture and impurities and is compressed at the landfill’s Recovery and Compression Station.  The methane then travels through a 9.5-mile pipeline from the landfill to Plant Spartanburg.

At the plant, the methane gas is cleaned and compressed again, then it’s fed into two gas turbines, which generate electricity and heat water throughout the eight million-square-foot Spartanburg plant.

BMW’s Plant Spartanburg has an annual production capacity of up to 450,000 vehicles and employs more than 11,000 people.  

Babcock & Wilcox (B&W) was awarded an approximately $65 million contract to provide engineering services and advanced technology for the Lostock Sustainable Energy Plant (LSEP), a waste-to-energy plant located at Lostock Gralam near Manchester, UK.

B&W will provide its GMAB flue gas treatment technologies, SPIG air-cooled condensers, Diamond Power boiler cleaning equipment and engineering in both B&W’s Denmark and U.S. offices.

The site of the Lostock plant was previously home to a since decommissioned coal-fired power plant.

It will utilize residual waste to generate 60+ MW of energy for residents and businesses. The plant is expected to be one of the largest operational waste-to-energy plants in the UK, processing around 600,000 metric tons of waste per year.

The Lostock waste-to-energy plant is scheduled to begin commercial operation in late-2025.

Europe’s largest coal-fired power plant could replace most of its lignite generation with renewables paired with batteries or lower-carbon thermal capacity, research group BloombergNEF (BNEF) has found in a new report.

Such a transition would lower overall power system costs in the Łódź region of Poland, where the plant is located, while maintaining critical energy security.

The Belchatow power station today plays a vital role in the central European energy grid and is the sixth largest coal-fired power plant on Earth.

BNEF has found that deploying 11 GW of wind and solar in the region to replace 80% of Belchatow’s brown coal generation is possible from a land-use perspective. Alternatively, some 6 GW of wind and solar paired with a gas, biomass or waste-to-energy plant could achieve similar output.

Its analysis examines the feasibility of deploying lower-carbon technologies and offers a possible transition roadmap to do so. The report was released by Bloomberg Philanthropies and BNEF, in partnership with Forum Energii at an event in the Polish region of Łódź, where the Belchatow plant stands.

Michael R. Bloomberg, UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy on Climate Ambition and Solutions and founder of Bloomberg LP and Bloomberg Philanthropies, said: “As the effects of climate change worsen, Europe’s energy crisis and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine only underscore countries’ urgent need to choose clean energy and cut their reliance on fossil fuels. This new report shows a promising path to replacing Europe’s biggest coal-fired power plant with alternative and resilient clean energy sources – and it can serve as an example for coal regions in Europe and globally that are looking to reap the health and economic benefits of clean energy.”

Belchatow supplies a fifth of Poland’s power and sits at the heart of the Polish power system and energy security. The successful transition of this coal-fired power plant could serve as an example for coal-regions around the world.

Joanna Maćkowiak-Pandera, PhD, CEO of Forum Energii, said: “The construction of new, low-emission sources in the Bełchatów region must be started as soon as possible in order to maintain the security of energy supply at a high level and reduce electricity prices. Lignite resources in Belchatow are limited in time and will run out soon. This report proposes options for replacing generation with clean capacity that will ensure Poland’s security of supply.”

Maciej Kozakiewicz, Plenipotentiary of the Board of the Łódź Province for the transformation of the Belchatow region, said: “This is an optimistic report in the context of Belchatow’s energy future. It proves that with the involvement of all stakeholders, the region’s prosperity can still be built on energy generation.

“The realization of such a scenario requires full mobilization around constructive scenarios, but it clearly shows how the energy of both activities and generation should be directed.”

BNEF also finds that very little new generation capacity is currently planned for the Łódź region. The current lack of transition plans for replacing lignite puts Poland’s energy security at risk and could see valuable grid infrastructure around Belchatow become stranded.

BNEF’s analysis presents several alternatives for replacing the decline in lignite generation at Belchatow alongside wind and solar, including thermal plants such as gas, biomass or waste-to-energy. However, fuel availability and price would limit the feasible size of thermal plants.

Podcast: Poland – race to 55

While Poland is expanding its import capacity for liquefied natural gas to make up for lost imports from Russia, securing investments for a new gas pipeline to Belchatow could be challenging in the current market environment. Nuclear is unlikely to replace lost lignite generation on time as new capacity often takes more than 10 years to plan and build.

Concrete plans to prepare for Belchatow’s retirement and accelerate the deployment of new low-carbon capacity could open the door for the plant to benefit from Just Transition funding from the EU.

Poland has the potential to receive around 3.5 billion euros ($3.4 billion) to support five of its region’s transition away from coal by 2030. The funds would create reskilling and economic opportunities to boost the country’s economy.

Growing up in the small town of Latta, South Carolina, James Richardson became interested in power generation when a local electric company presented at his high school.

“There was a stationary bicycle that was connected to a generator that lit a light when someone pedaled the bicycle,” he said. “I was fascinated by this as a freshman.” Richardson spoke with Power Engineering in observance of #BlackHistoryMonth.

Richardson’s pastor, Reverend Paul B. German, was the maintenance man at the nearby elementary school. He taught Richardson how to start up and operate the package boilers that heated the school, to sound fuel oil tanks and do other basic repairs. Richardson said these skills were valuable when he joined the U.S. Navy after graduating.  

“My mother and brother Charles walked to receive my high school diploma,” he recalled. “She was very proud.”

Richardson found success quickly. In the Navy, he was promoted to E-6, Machinist Mate 1^st Class in just four years. At 22 years old, he said he was leading some men who were more than twice his age. But knowing he might not progress to the next rank for a decade, he left the Navy to begin a career in the waste-to-energy sector.

“I worked my way from entry-level engineer to Plant Manager in 10 years,” said Richardson in an interview in recognition of Black History Month. “Along the way, there were issues that seemed discriminatory. However, I did not quit, I became more involved.”

He did everything: writing start up procedures for plant equipment, volunteering for plant commissioning teams, even appearing in company infomercials.

Richardson recalled learning a lot from a man named Steve Di Liberto, a plant manager he supported. One piece of advice he recalls Di Liberto telling him was to get a degree. Richardson had been six credits shy when he left the Navy.

“As a young, Black male, I might not be given first consideration for a job, but with a degree, employers have one less reason not to hire me,” said Richardson. “He told me not to give anyone a reason to not hire me.”

Six years later, Richardson had earned both a bachelor’s and master’s in business administration.

He has held a variety of positions at CPS Energy, the utility serving San Antonio, Texas. Previously, he was director at Sommers, an 830 MW gas-fired plant. He also oversaw the coal yard, which processes nearly 4 million tons of coal per year for the J.K. Spruce Power Plant.

In February, Richardson took over as director for Spruce, ensuring his teams operate and maintain the plant to provide reliable power in a safe, environmentally compliant manner.

“I have been in power plants since I was 18 and have enjoyed almost every minute of it,” he said.

Richardson said there isn’t just one attribute that helps make someone a great Director or Plant Manager. Here is the list he gave us, built from more than 40 years of experience:

1. Always enforce safety first. Demand it of everybody in your plant, division, or company.
2. Act with integrity. You can’t lead successfully without it.
3. Honor commitments. Team members remember when you don’t do what you say.
4. Strive for excellence. This is a part of the team building process. Set goals for your team that are SMART, but also require them to stretch and improve their performance.
5. Develop others and allow them to grow with guidance. Your support and guidance can help people to realize their potential.
6. Have a professional curiosity. Try to learn something about the plant or process every day.
7. If there is a plant issue, get to the root cause. There are no ghost or mystery trips. It is in everyone’s best interest to find and resolve the issue. Resolving issues allows maintenance personnel to sleep at night.

“There are days when you know you did great work and there are days when you feel like you could have done better, but you have another shift in 12 hours and you get to do it all over again,” he added. “The odds are in your favor that you win more days that you lose.”

California-based Ways2H Inc. and Caribbean energy and ecological firm VALECOM are signed a letter of intent to transform as much as 9,000 tons of commercial waste into hydrogen. The project will focus on H2 production for power generation on Martinique.

The island nation uses about 3,000 tons of plastic films to protect its bananas for export. WAYS2H will initially process 24 tons of commercial waste, including the plastic and furniture, per day. The conversion will take in another eight tons per day once the infrastructure is fully operational at the end of the expected 18-month construction timetable.

“This modular and multi-flow project in Martinique will set up one or more of WAYS2H’s waste-to-energy units and we intent to replicate it in other Caribbean nations,” Dominique Regis, VALECOM CEO, said in a statement.

Ways2H and its shareholder and technology partner, Japan Blue Energy, Co., developed their patented thermochemical process that converts waste at a high temperature into high-quality fuel-grade hydrogen. No partial oxidation of the feedstock takes place and the high temperature and syngas composition leave optimal conditions for the water-gas-shift reaction to obtain a hydrogen-rich syngas, from which hydrogen is separated and purified to fuel grade, the company says. 

Char produced as a byproduct is collected and used as fuel with the remaining tail-gas to generate the energy needed for the thermochemical conversion of the waste feedstock, thus self-supplying the energy needed. When paired with carbon capture and storage or utilization, Ways2H’s renewable hydrogen is carbon-negative, which means it removes carbon from the atmosphere.

“What we’re seeing in Martinique is not unique to what we’re seeing across the world: local, often rural, economies that are struggling to manage increasingly diverse waste streams, heightened energy costs and job losses,” said Ways2H CEO Jean-Louis Kindler. “As we approach COP26, we see our work here, and in our projects around the world, as a critical Under embargo until September 28, 2021 at 7 a.m. ET blueprint for circular economy creation and we thank our partners like VALECOM as we work towards this mutual goal.”

The hydrogen conversion and production plant will be located near the island’s landfill (aerial photo above).

Waste-to-H2 sites are currently underway in Japan, France and Scotland and the U.S., Ways2H noted. The company is a joint venture with Japan Blue Energy and U.S.-based Clean Energy Enterprises.

B&W Renewables was awarded the $35 million-plus contract by ESANI A/S, Greenland’s national waste management company. The facilities will be built near the cities of Nuuk and Sisimiut and provide district heating for residents and businesses.

Utilizing waste from existing landfills and convert it to energy reduce net methane emissions by a considerable degree. Climate experts say that methane is multiple times more harmful as a greenhouse gas than carbon emissions, according to reports.

“Waste-to-energy technologies are some of the most effective solutions for combatting climate change by reducing methane emissions from landfills and can be combined with carbon capture technologies to further reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” said Jimmy Morgan, B&W Chief Operating Officer. “Using B&W Renewable’s proven waste-to-energy and environmental technologies, operators can generate clean energy while reducing the amount of trash in landfills, protecting the air and water from emissions and runoff, and fighting climate change. B&W Renewable’s technology also provides a fully sustainable solution, now and in the future, to process municipal waste while helping to protect Greenland’s pristine and fragile arctic environment.”

Waste-to-energy projects will be part of the content offered at POWERGEN this January

B&W Renewable’s project scope includes supplying advanced Vølund DynaGrate combustion grates as well as boilers, waste feeding systems, a Vølund DynaDischarger ash extractor, GMAB flu gas cleaning systems and advanced control and monitoring systems.

The company also will install and commission the facilities. The waste-to-energy plants are scheduled for completion in 2023 and 2024.

B&W has participated in more than 100 waste-to-energy power projects worldwide. Many of those have been in Scandinavia, which is evidence of island nations concerned about land scarcity and costs for dumps, not to mention the environmental impacts.

In the U.S., the federal Energy Information Administration estimated that only about 12 percent of the nearly 300 million tons of municipal solid waste produced in the U.S. was burned in WTE plants. In 2019, 67 U.S. power plants generated about 13 billion kWh of electricity from burning nearly 25 million tons of combustible solid waste, according to the EIA.

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) – America remains awash in refuse as new cases of the coronavirus decline – and that has reignited a debate about the sustainability of burning more trash to create energy.

Waste-to-energy plants, which produce most of their power by incinerating trash, make up only about half a percent of the electricity generation in the U.S. But the plants have long aroused considerable opposition from environmentalists and local residents who decry the facilities as polluters, eyesores and generators of foul odor.

The industry has been in retreat mode in the U.S., with dozens of plants closing since 2000 amid local opposition and emissions concerns. But members of the industry said they see the increase in garbage production in the U.S. in recent months as a chance to play a bigger role in creating energy and fighting climate change by keeping waste out of methane-creating landfills.

One estimate from the Solid Waste Association of North America placed the amount of residential waste up as much as 8% this spring compared to the previous spring. And more trash is on the way. A 2020 study in the journal Science stated that the global plastic packaging market size was projected to grow from more than $900 billion in 2019 to more than $1 trillion by 2021, growth largely due to the pandemic response.

That trash has to go somewhere, and using it as a resource makes more sense than sending it to landfills, said James Regan, senior director of corporate communications for Covanta, the largest player in the industry. The company currently processes about 20 million tons (18,144 metric tons) of waste a year to power about a million homes, and it could do more, he said.

“If we’re going to reach climate goals by 2050, the waste sector really can and should be part of that story,” Regan said. “This is low-hanging fruit. So what are we waiting for?”

Waste-to-energy plants are expanding in other parts of the world, as more than 120 plants have been built in the last five years. They’re concentrated most heavily in Europe and Asia. But the most recent new plant in the U.S. opened in 2015 in Palm Beach County, Florida.

President Joe Biden, meanwhile, has put a premium on the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions and creation of more renewable energy, and while that push has focused heavily on wind and solar power, the administration has also acknowledged a place for waste-to-energy conversion. The White House said in an April statement that the U.S. “can address carbon pollution from industrial processes” by including waste-to-power in the mix.

Any attempt to build more plants in the U.S. will be met with resistance, said Mike Ewall, director of the Philadelphia-based Energy Justice Network. The plants represent a threat to human and environmental health because they emit chemicals such as mercury and dioxin, he said. Communities have also opposed waste-to-energy plants because of concerns about airborne particulate matter that can have negative health consequences.

“The notion that this industry is going to be building new plants is just ludicrous,” Ewall said.

But the fact remains that creation of garbage has increased, and municipalities have to deal with it somehow. One study, published in the scientific journal Environment, Development and Sustainability, attributed the increase to factors such as panic buying and more reliance on single-use items. Medical waste has also increased due to the heavy use of personal protective equipment, the study found.

As the pandemic has abated in many part of the country and the economy has reopened, commercial waste has increased, but residential waste creation has not slowed. In Portland, Maine, residential waste was up 12% and commercial was up 2% in June, said Matt Grondin, spokesman for ecomaine, which operates a waste-to-energy power plant.

Converting all that new garbage to energy is the best available option, Grondin said.

“It’s a lot of garbage. You can probably imagine with a lot of people at home, cleaning out, doing projects, that accounts for a lot of the increase,” he said. “It has to go somewhere.”

Other communities have looked at garbage-to-gas production as a way to get energy from swelling amounts of trash. These plants use strategies such as compacting garbage and sealing it to capture methane that can be used as fuel.

The garbage-to-gas program at the landfill in St. Landry Parish, Louisiana, started as a way to get carbon credits by burning off methane, said Richard LeBouef, executive director of the parish Solid Waste Disposal District.

Now natural gas from the landfill powers contractor Waste Connection’s 12 garbage trucks, the landfill’s five pickup trucks and six trucks for litter abatement teams. The district has put $2.7 million, plus maintenance, into the system.

“What we’re saving monetarily is not super-substantial but in accordance with the green issue I think it’s a great thing,” LeBouef said.

Waste-to-energy plants typically create power by burning the trash at about 2,000 degrees (1,093 degrees Celsius) and using it to boil water that is turned into steam, superheated and sent to a turbine to make electricity.

Attempts to convert more pandemic garbage into energy are likely to be controversial, said Frank Roethel, director of the Waste Reduction and Management Institute at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. But using the trash to make power beats letting it pile up, he said.

“Here you have the Biden administration talking about climate change, and talking about strategies that could help reduce emissions,” Roethel said. “And waste to energy doesn’t necessarily get the recognition, but it could certainly reduce emissions.”

___

Associated Press writer Janet McConnaughey in New Orleans contributed to this report.

The new plant, scheduled to be completed in 2023, will be capable of processing up to 110,000 tons of refuse-derived fuel (RDF) produced by the citizens of the greater Olsztyn area.

According to Doosan Å koda, the plant will cover about 30% of the district heating demand in the city by replacing old coal-fired sources of heat. This will ensure a secure supply of district heating to the local citizens while offering a sustainable alternative to fossil fuels. In addition, the thermal treatment of the waste makes it possible to reduce the landfill space required and will reduce CO2 in the Olsztyn area.

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In this PPP project, Doosan Å koda will work together with other members of the Doosan consortium — the EPC partner, along with Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction, and Doosan Lentjes, as the technology provider. The end customer of the incinerator is Dobra Energia dla Olsztyna.

“The assembly is unique in that it has a radial outlet with extraction points, while similar types of turbines had an axial outlet in the past. The assembly’s total power will be roughly 12MW,” says Tomà¡Å¡ Winkler, project manager at Doosan Å koda Power.

Dobra Energia Dla Olsztyna is a Polish project designed to manage combustible municipal waste through thermal conversion with energy recovery. The project was funded through the European Union to the value of 172 million PLN ($47 million). The construction of the waste incineration plant together with the peak load boiler house in Olsztyn was carried out on the basis of a public-private partnership agreement, MPEC being the public partner and Dobra Energia dla Olsztyna being the private partner.

At its Oberkirch location, Koehler operates three paper machines, including the associated auxiliary systems. The paper processing and drying processes require enormous amounts of energy, which is why the company originally built its own power plant in 1943. In 1986 a new power plant was built, which now operates on bituminous coal and refuse-derived fuels such as paper sludge.

The 60 million euro ($73 million) conversion will ensure the plant operates on CO2-neutral energy produced using wood chips, green waste, and mill residue.

Koehler Group CEO, Kai Furler, said: “By switching from bituminous coal to biomass as the primary fuel for our location here in Oberkirch, we will be cutting more than 150,000 metric tons of CO2 emissions a year.”

More biomass and CHP stories from PE

Doosan Lentjes participates in new Polish waste-to-energy plant

Marriage of CHP & Hydrogen: Sounds heavenly but expensive & uncertain

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Today, the power plant delivers a total of about 100,000 MW/h of electric power and 330,000 metric tons
of steam per year. In addition, the resulting waste heat is used for the open-air public swimming pool in Oberkirch.

Changing the power plant to operate completely on biomass reflects Koehler’s aim of producing more energy from renewable sources than is required for its paper production operations by 2030. Furthermore, the German government’s Fuel Emissions Trading Act makes it more difficult to use fossil fuels, another reason why Koehler will be implementing its plans for the conversion three years earlier than originally planned.

The plant will be commissioned at the end of 2024.