“Alternative Revenue Sources” are tipping fee revenues received from the combustion of non-traditional waste. Such alternative solid wastes are not hazardous wastes and are not typically delivered by the normal garbage collection system. Alternative Revenue Wastes (ARW) need a due diligence review showing that disposal of the waste will not violate any laws, ordinances and/or permit conditions. Disposal of ARW will need coordination and additional special handling for final disposal ARW generators do pay a tipping fee greater than the solid waste tipping fee in order to compensate the owner/operator for the extra effort. ARW wastes are derived from the following special considerations: 1) Liability concerns from disposal of such waste. 2) Sensitive security. 3) Legal/Regulatory compliance. 4) Environmental concerns. 5) Resource recovery. 6) Infectious Wastes.

Created in 1978, the Solid Waste Authority of Palm Beach County (Authority) has developed an “award winning” solid waste management system that includes the following facilities to service the residents and businesses in Palm Beach County, Florida: • North County Resource Recovery Facility (NCRRF); • Residential and Commercial Recovered Materials Processing Facility; • Six Transfer Stations; • Class I Landfill; • Class III Landfill; • Biosolids Processing Facility; • Ferrous Processing Facility; • Woody Waste Recycling Facility; • Composting Facility; and • Two Household Hazardous Waste Facilities. The Authority has proactively planned and implemented an integrated program to provide for the long term, reliable, economically sound and environmentally sustainable management of solid waste in Palm Beach County. The County’s anticipated growth necessitated that the Authority evaluate several options for long-term processing and disposal capacity. This resulted in a decision to expand its WTE capacity with a new mass burn facility, the first facility of its kind to be constructed in the US in almost two decades, reaffirming its commitment to waste-to-energy. The planned 3,000 TPD facility will provide the Authority with a total disposal capacity of 5,000 TPD generating approximately 150MW of renewable energy. The decision to proceed with the expansion was approved by the Authority’s Board in October 2008. The Authority, with its Consulting Engineer, Malcolm Pirnie/ARCADIS, has since made significant progress in the implementation of this landmark project including the completion of the preliminary design, securing environmental permits, procuring a full service vendor, issuance of nearly $600 million revenue bonds for signing an electrical sales contract, and ongoing extensive public outreach efforts. This presentation will focus on the ongoing development of the new mass burn facility and an update of the status of activities conducted to date such as: • Environmental Permitting – Issuance of the PPSA Conditions of Certification and submittal of the Post Certification/Pre Construction requirements; • Vendor Procurement – Iterative procurement process designed to obtain vendor input through final selection and contract award of a full service vendor (Design, Build and Operate); • Preliminary Design – Innovative design features such as the utilization of SCR technology for control of NOx emission and incorporation of rainwater harvesting and water reuse; • Public Outreach – the Authority’s efforts to keep the public informed through mass mailings, community meetings, television commercials and educational materials for all audiences; and • Financing – Approach designed to preserve alternative minimum tax benefits.

Created in 1978, the Solid Waste Authority of Palm Beach County (Authority) has developed an “award winning” solid waste management system that includes franchised solid waste collections and the following facilities to service the residents and businesses in Palm Beach County, Florida: • North County Resource Recovery Facility (NCRRF); • Residential and Commercial Recovered Materials Processing Facility; • Five Transfer Stations; • Class I Landfill; • Class III Landfill; • Biosolids Pelletization Facility; • Ferrous Processing Facility; • Woody Waste Recycling Facility; • Composting Facility; and • Household Hazardous Waste Facility. The Authority has proactively planned and implemented its current integrated solid waste management program to ensure disposal capacity through 2021. However, like many communities, the Authority anticipates continued population growth and associated new development patterns that will significantly increase demands on its solid waste system, requiring it to reevaluate and update its planning to accommodate future growth. The NCRRF, the Authority’s refuse derived fuel waste-to-energy facility, has performed very well since its start up in 1989 processing over 13 million tons of MSW, saving valuable landfill space and efficiently producing clean, renewable energy. As the NCRRF approached the end of its first 20 year operating term, it became necessary to complete a comprehensive refurbishment to ensure its continued reliable service for a second 20 year term and beyond providing for continued disposal capacity and energy production for the Authority’s customers. The Authority renegotiated and extended its operating agreement with the Palm Beach Resource Recovery Corporation (PBRRC), a Babcock & Wilcox Company, for an additional 20-year term. The Authority selected BE&K Construction Company (BE&K) and entered into an Engineering, Procurement, and Construction contract (EPC Contract) to perform the refurbishment. The Authority, with assistance from its Consulting Engineer, Malcolm Pirnie, Inc., developed the minimum technical requirements and negotiated the EPC Contract with BE&K. The design and procurement efforts were completed in early 2009 and on-site construction refurbishment activities commenced in November 2009. The refurbishment has a total estimated cost of $205 million. The refurbishment work is sequenced with the intent that one boiler train will remain operational to reduce the impact to the Authority’s landfill and maximize electrical production and revenues during the refurbishment period. This presentation will focus on the improvements to operations as a result of the refurbishment and its positive effects on the Authority’s integrated solid waste management system.

Created in 1978, the Solid Waste Authority of Palm Beach County (Authority) has developed an “award winning” solid waste management system that includes franchised solid waste collections and the following facilities to service the residents and businesses in Palm Beach County, Florida: • North County Resource Recovery Facility (NCRRF); • Residential and Commercial Recovered Materials Processing Facility; • Five Transfer Stations; • Class I Landfill; • Class III Landfill; • Biosolids Pelletization Facility; • Ferrous Processing Facility; • Woody Waste Recycling Facility; • Composting Facility; and • Household Hazardous Waste Facility. The Authority has proactively planned and implemented its current integrated solid waste management program to ensure disposal capacity through 2021. However, even in consideration of the current economic climate, the Authority anticipates continued population growth and associated new development patterns that will significantly increase demands on its solid waste system, requiring it to reevaluate and update its planning to accommodate future growth. The NCRRF, the Authority’s refuse derived fuel waste-to-energy facility, has performed very well since its start up in 1989 processing over 13 million tons of MSW, saving valuable landfill space and efficiently producing clean renewable energy. As the NCRRF has reached the end of its first 20 year operating term, it became necessary to complete a comprehensive refurbishment to ensure its continued reliable service for a second 20 year term and beyond providing for continued disposal capacity and energy production for the Authority’s customers. Separately, the Authority also recognized that the refurbishment alone will not provide any additional disposal capacity for the County. The County’s anticipated growth necessitated that the Authority evaluate several options for long-term processing and disposal capacity, resulting in a decision to expand its WTE capacity with a new mass burn facility, the first facility of its kind to be constructed in Florida in more than a decade, reaffirming its commitment to waste-to-energy. The planned 3,000 TPD expansion will provide a total disposal capacity of 5,000 TPD generating approximately 150MW of renewable energy. The decision to proceed with the expansion was approved by the Authority’s Board in October 2008. The Authority, with its Consulting Engineer, Malcolm Pirnie, Inc., has since made significant progress in the facility’s implementation including the completion of the preliminary design, submittal of environmental permit applications, ongoing procurement of a full service vendor, issuance of revenue bonds for project financing, and commencing extensive public outreach. This paper will focus on the development of the new mass burn facility and an update of the status of activities conducted to date including, permitting, financing, vendor procurement, design, and public outreach, as well as will highlight several innovative design, procurement, permitting, and financing features of this landmark project for the Authority, such as: • Utilization of SCR technology for control of NOx emission; • Incorporation of rainwater harvesting and water reuse; • Utilization of iterative procurement process designed to obtain vendor input in a competitive environment; and • Financing approach designed to preserve alternative minimum tax benefits.

The range of fuels fed to waste incineration plants extends from well-sorted domestic refuse through mixed waste fractions to fuel mixtures that may additionally contain various types of hazardous waste and biomass. This diversity results in a great number of fuel and ash compositions. Among these are fuels with a high calorific value as well as with a low calorific value and simple fuel ashes just as highly problematic fuel ashes. The latter can lead to increased slagging in the combustion chamber and fouling in the open passes of waste incineration plants as well as accelerated corrosion. The plant operator is consequently faced with considerable challenges associated with unscheduled boiler downtime and production losses. The paper describes how fuel specific process know-how is applied in combination with fully automated, efficient onload boiler cleaning systems to control the slagging issues. The paper describes a system which utilizes water as the cleaning medium. The system allows the targeted cleaning of waste incinerators during operation. This paper points out challenges faced by plant operators and suppliers of boiler cleaning technology caused by the heterogeneous fuel composition, and describes in well monitored case studies how these challenges can be successfully met.

Palm Beach County (Florida) Solid Waste Authority built an integrated solid waste management system in the 1980s and 1990s around an 1,800 tpd Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF) Waste-to-Energy (WTE) facility. The system included a network of five regional transfer stations, Subtitle D sanitary landfill, recovered materials processing facility, composting facility, metals processing facility and household hazardous waste collection program. The WTE, which became operational in 1989, was built with two 900 tpd RDF combustion units. Space was provided for the addition of a third combustion unit, a second turbine-generator and an extra flue was installed in the facility’s stack. By 2004, the WTE was fifteen years old. It had been running at over 125% availability and well above its nominal capacity for almost a decade. Landfill capacity was being consumed at a rate which would see it filled in less than 20 years. The County had been hit with repeated hurricanes in recent years and the County’s population was continuing to grow making landfill capacity projections far from certain. The Authority began an assessment of its long term capacity options which included renovation of its existing WTE facility, expansion of that facility, development of a new WTE facility, development of a new Subtitle D Landfill and several out-of-county options. This paper will focus on the results of this assessment with emphasis on the current efforts to develop a new Mass Burn WTE facility with a capacity of 3,000 tpd and a commercial operations date of 2015. It will be the largest new WTE built in North America in more than 20 years. The choice of Mass Burn technology, facility and combustion module sizing, air pollution control technology, facility site selection, environmental permitting, public outreach program, project financing and procurement and contracting approach will be discussed.

Plasma gasification is an efficient and environmentally responsible form of thermal treatment of wastes. In the plasma gasification process, extremely high temperature gases are used to break down the molecular structure of complex carboncontaining materials — such as municipal solid waste (MSW), tires, hazardous waste and sewage sludge — and convert them into synthesis gas (syngas) containing hydrogen and carbon monoxide that can be used to generate power or other sustainable sources of energy. Gasification occurs in an oxygen starved environment so the waste is gasified, not incinerated.

Islands located in the eastern Caribbean must address, like other parts of the World, the following issues: • The management of solid waste and hazardous waste. • The protection of the environment. • Energy supplies.

Following a 1986 decision by Montgomery County in Maryland to construct a municipal waste resource recovery facility near the town of Dickerson, the local community expressed concern regarding the potential human health effects from air emissions of dioxins and trace metals released through the stack of the proposed facility. To address this concern, the County conducted health risk studies and ambient monitoring programs before and after the facility became operational. The purpose of the health risk studies was to determine potential cancer and non-cancer risks to the nearby residents from the operations of the facility. The purpose of the ambient monitoring programs was to determine if any changes would occur in the ambient levels of certain target chemicals in the environmental media, and if such changes can be attributed to the operations of the facility. Accordingly, the County conducted a multiple pathway health risk assessment in 1989 prior to the construction of the facility. The pre-operational health risk assessment was based on estimated stack engineering parameters and available stack emissions data from municipal waste resource recovery facilities that were operating in the United States, Canada and Europe during the 1980’s. The health risk assessment used established procedures that were accepted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) and many state agencies at that time. The Montgomery County Resource Recovery Facility (RRF) became operational in the spring of 1995. The facility is equipped with the state-of-the-art air pollution control (APC) equipment including a dry scrubber-fabric filter baghouse system to control organics and trace metals, ammonia injection system to control nitrogen oxides, and activated carbon injection system to control mercury. In 2003, the County retained ENSR International to update the 1989 health risk assessment study. In the 2003 operational-phase update, as-built engineering data and measured stack emissions data from a total of eighteen quarterly stack emissions tests were used. The study was conducted in accordance with the U.S. EPA’s Human Health Risk Assessment Protocol for Hazardous Waste Combustion Facilities published in 1998 [1], and an Errata, published in 1999 [2]. Both the 1989 study and the 2003 study demonstrated that there is a very low chance (less than one chance in a million) for occurrence of cancer and no adverse non-cancer health effects to the nearby community as a result of exposure to facility-related emissions. The multi-media ambient monitoring programs were conducted in abiotic and biotic environmental media. These programs included an air-monitoring component and a non-air monitoring component. The pre-operational phase of the air media and non-air media monitoring was conducted in 1994–1995. The pre-operational program was designed to produce baseline data for target chemicals in both air and non-air media. The operational-phase air media monitoring was conducted in 1997 and 2003. The operational-phase non-air media monitoring was conducted in 1997 and 2001. Target chemicals monitored in both air and non-air media included polychlorinated dioxins and furans (PCDDs/PCDFs) and selected toxic metals (arsenic, beryllium, cadmium, chromium, lead, mercury, and nickel). The non-air media included crops, farm pond surface water and fish tissue, and cow’s milk. The ambient levels of target chemicals monitored in the operational phase of the facility (1997, 2001 and 2003) demonstrated no measurable difference from the ambient levels of these chemicals monitored in the pre-operational phase (1994–95) of the facility, in both the air media and non-air media. The results of the health risk studies and ambient monitoring programs demonstrate that municipal waste combustion facilities that are equipped with the state-of-the-art air pollution control equipment pose no significant health risk to the population.

The current situation for fly ash management and policy regulation in the United Kingdom / European Union, has developed the need for new toxicity reduction exercises. New EU wide policies are changing the type of treatment methods that can be legally used for the residues from waste-to-energy plants. In particular the disposal of flue gas treatment residues, which are classified as a hazardous waste, will not be acceptable to landfill according to the Waste Acceptance Criteria without a pre-treatment by 2007. This has raised a number of interesting engineering questions that need to be addressed. The novel TRE of metal matrix encapsulation has been designed based upon the principles of separation, isolation and treatment to meet these new criteria. Metal matrix encapsulation is a treatment program that employs existing industrial infrastructure to improve its usability and legal compliance.