Improving Plant Operations: Retrofit of Waste-to-Energy Stoker Controls to Improve Combustion and Availability

This paper discusses the retrofit of the stoker grate hydraulic system and controls at Montenay’s Montgomery County Pennsylvania Waste-to Energy Facility. Since commencing operations in 1991, the stoker grate system was plagued with operational disruptions caused by fusion of its moving grates. The existing hydraulic system was designed to control the movement of waste on the grate sections by maintaining constant velocity stoker grate movement and varying the length of time the grates were dormant between cycles of grate movement. The purpose of the retrofit was to improve grate operations by replacing the existing hydraulic system with a system capable of providing continuous stoker movement at variable velocities, eliminating the dormant cycle of the grate movement.