By Susan Jarvis
December 20, 2006

Scott Shannon’s presentation, “Waste To Energy: Using Superpowers for Good,” demonstrated how waste-to-energy (WTE) could be used as a strategic asset in terms of energy independence. The presentation also explored how Superheroes, like Batman and Superman, have many similarities with the WTE industry. “Like superheroes, waste-to-energy facilities have special abilities, like shrinking in size. A waste to energy plant shrinks the amount of garbage ultimately requiring disposal and transforms it into usable energy,” Shannon began. Superheroes and WTE facilities also have trademarks tools or weapons. “Green Arrow has his bow and arrow, Wonder woman has her lasso and waste to energy facilities have a furnace, to combust and shrink the waste, a boiler – to recover the heat and make steam, a TG, to convert the heat energy of the steam to electric power and a Spray Dryer Absorbers to control acid gases like SO2 and HCl, among other things,” Shannon said.

Shannon concluded that like Superheroes, WTE facilities serve the greater good. They preserve valuable land, and offset energy needs serviced by fossil fuel combustion. One ton of burned garbage is equal to 500 pounds of coal, one barrel of oil or 550 KWh of electricity. WTE facilities also reduce green house gas emissions and enable the recycling of other materials. While WTE facilities have had to over come some public relations obstacles, they have ultimately been embraced by municipalities. In Florida, WTE plants process 22 percent of municipal solid waste and communities are still investing in retro fits and upgrades.

Jeff Clunie, from RW Beck, provided attendees with a comparison of estimated costs of waste disposal methods. He asked, “Is there a future for Waste to Energy?” In his presentation, Clunie outlined a recent feasibility study which compared the costs of continued land filling at county-owned landfills, use of county-owned, privately operated transfer stations for long-haul truck transfer to out-of'state landfills, a municipal solid waste composting facility, a WTE facility sized to accept waste from just one county, and a regional WTE facility sized to accept waste from two counties.

In the course of the study, Clunie also identified market drivers for waste disposal, including increased fuel costs, availability of renewable energy credits, and the ability to sell power to alternative power grids. “Municipalities will reap benefits when their waste disposal systems are designed with economies of scale in mind,” Clunie stated. Other market drivers include new technologies, like waste to ethanol, gasification that converts MSW to a fuel gas with the use of some oxygen, conversion of plastics to oil, pyrolysis systems convert solid waste to gas in the absence of oxygen, plasma systems use plasma torches to provide the energy to convert solid waste to energy, chemical and biological conversion of the cellulose fraction of MSW to ethanol.

WTE does have a future, as it is the only current commercially demonstrated alternative to land filling, concluded Clunie.

For more information on Waste-to-Energy or to view the presentation, log onto the website www.usmayors.org/mwma.