Retrofit of the McKay Bay Waste-to-Energy Facility

This paper provides an overview of the City of Tampa’s 1,000-TPD, four-unit McKay Bay Facility which began operations as an incinerator in 1967; was upgraded to a waste-to-energy (WTE) facility (using waste heat boilers) in 1985; and then again retrofitted during a 33-month design, procurement, and construction period, from 1999 to 2001. As the selected project developer for this recent retrofit, Wheelabrator McKay Bay, Inc. (WMBI) chose to design new chute-to-stack units within the space constraints of the existing refuse feed chutes, ground floor slab and bottom ash conveyors. This paper identifies key plant statistics and describes the project scope, schedule, controls, and safety issues. Results of acceptance testing, including air emissions, are reviewed and compared against contractual and permit requirements. The unique challenges faced by the operations staff during the retrofit are discussed in detail. Several examples of “lessons learned” regarding design and operations are given.