Covanta Energy

Comment Up

There were interesting presentations last night at city Hall in order for the city commission, staff and its advisers to eventually come to a conclusion as to whom will be our new energy provider beginning in January 2014.

There were a few that were outstanding but the most interesting presentation of the night, and the one that gave me a smile, was given by Covanta Energy. Its mission is to be the  world's leading Energy-from-Waste (EfW) company, with a complementary network of waste disposal and energy generation asset facilities that convert everyday trash into clean, renewable energy for communities around the world. All trash you discard is converted into energy--even those styrofoam cups you use for coffee. Covanta’s North American facilities supply electricity for  approximately 1 million homes and is headquartered in Doral, Florida.

The facility is the Miami-Dade County Resource recovery Facility and the seller is Miami-Dade County. On average, each ton of waste processed at Energy-from-Waste facilities yield approximately 550 kilowatt hours of electricity and approximately 50 pounds of recycled metal.

How Energy from Waste Works

1. Municipal waste is delivered to our facilities and stored in a bunker.
2. The waste is transferred to a combustion chamber where self-sustaining combustion is maintained at extremely high temperatures. We maintain the building around the tipping and bunker area under negative pressure and use this air in the combustion process to control odor.
3. The heat from the combustion process boils water.
4. & 5. The steam from the boiling water is used directly, or more frequently, the steam drives a turbine that generates electricity.
6. Electricity is distributed to the local grid.
7. Ash from combustion is processed to extract metal for recycling. It is then combined with residue from the air pollution control process (see items 9 and 10).
8. The combined ash is either disposed of in a monofill (where only ash is stored) that receives only that waste, used as cover material at a conventional landfill, or landfilled with other waste.
9. All gases are collected, filtered and cleaned before being emitted into the atmosphere. We manage gas from the combustion process with state-of-the-art air pollution control technology that operates to state and federal standards.
10. We control emissions of particulate matter primarily through a baghouse (fabric filter).
11. We monitor criteria and other pollutants and operating parameters to ensure compliance with permit conditions.

William Meredith, Business Manager Covanta Energy, said to give him a call if I wanted to take a tour of the facility. I would like to see our Commission take him up on that offer.