What About Small Facilities?

The EPA defines a small municipal waste combustor (MWC) Class II facility as having an aggregate plant capacity of 250 tons per day (TPD) or less. Some commercial Waste-to-Energy (WTE) operators consider that there is an economy of scale required that is much greater. So what about small facilities? Can public entities or private companies make the economics work? This paper will offer a status of existing small facilities, available combustion technologies and identify known planned expansions or new facilities. The paper will feature one such facility with an interesting past and a bright future including plans for expansion: the Perham Resource Recovery Facility in Perham, Minnesota. This cogeneration facility plans to increase its capacity from 112 TPD to 200 TPD along with adding upfront processing to improve fuel quality.