Montenay Inc. has operated the Greater Vancouver Regional District’s (GVRD) Waste-to-Energy Facility since it began commercial operation in 1988. The facility has a throughput of 720 tonnes (800 tons) per day in three lines. It utilizes Martin grate technology and dry lime injection with a reverse pulse jet fabric filter. The original facility design did not include a steam turbogenerator for energy recovery. The facility produced process steam at near saturation temperature to supply a recycle paper mill. The aging mill has reduced the fraction of steam used in recent years. This caused the GVRD and Montenay Inc. to cooperate in a major facility upgrade that began in 2001 and was completed in August of 2003. The complete project includes a turbogenerator, major boiler improvements and modernization of the boiler controls, while continuing to service the recycle paper mill.

Like many coal-fired power plants today, the waste-to-energy (WTE) industry is faced with a number of challenges including the need to maximize plant output, lower outlet emissions and increase plant efficiencies. Within WTE, there’s also been a move from reverse-air baghouses to pulse-jet collectors due to lower initial capital costs and the ability to operate pulse-jet collectors at higher air-to-cloth ratios (3–4:1), allowing for a smaller housing footprint. However, the majority of today’s pulse-jet collectors utilize an off-line cleaning mode where modules are taken out of service and pulsed to lower the differential pressure. There are inherent advantages in switching from an off-line cleaning mode to an on-line cleaning mode. This paper discusses the idea of using the fabric filter as a damper and stabilizing draft through the baghouse and boiler. It also outlines the use of pleated filter element (PFE) technology to address increased production concerns, and the need for lower outlet emissions.