[GreenYes] Trash: Torch or transfer? Fla's second waste pyrolysis project

[LWheeler45@no.address]

Trash: Torch or transfer?    
Citrus Co Chronicle Jan  2007_t_ (mailto:terrywitt@no.address)   
County seeks alternatives to landfill by considering burn facility,  transfer 
station 
he future of garbage disposal in Citrus County is at a crossroads. 
County solid waste officials hope to hire a Tampa firm later this month  to 
design and engineer a solid waste transfer station that most likely  would be 
built at the Citrus County Landfill. 
If the transfer station were constructed, garbage would be dumped in a  large 
building and reloaded on 18-wheel trucks for transport to a private  landfill 
southeast of Orlando. 
While the planning continues for the transfer station, the county is  
investigating a lesser known method of garbage disposal involving a  technology that 
has never been successfully used in Florida. 
County commissioners have asked staff to determine whether it would be  
possible to build a waste-to-energy plant at the landfill. The  method, called 
pyrolysis, would heat garbage to high temperatures, causing  it to decompose 
rapidly. Gases produced as a byproduct of the pryolysis  could be burned to 
generate electricity. 
No decision has been made about whether to build the transfer station  or 
construct a pyrolysis plant, but the pyrolysis option appears less  likely at 
this point. 
“From what I’ve seen so far, I’m not ready to jump on that,” said Solid  
Waste Division Director Susie Metcalfe. 
The county has plenty of time to decide which option is best. Its lined  
garbage cell at the landfill won’t reach capacity for five to six  years. 
Researching pyrolysis 
Metcalfe has hired a group of University of Florida students to  research 
pyrolysis. The students will produce a report about how pyrolysis  works and 
whether it could be used at the landfill. 
Pyrolysis would heat the garbage to high temperatures in an  oxygen-free 
chamber. The garbage would degrade quickly into gases, bio-oil  and charcoal. 
But Metcalfe said she isn’t certain whether the technology would work  at a 
garbage landfill. From her limited knowledge of the technology, she  has heard 
pyrolysis works best when one type of material, such as wood  chips, is fed 
into the plant. She said household garbage consists of a  wide range of 
materials. 
Two companies, Superior Waste Solution and Effe Inc. and Associates,  
approached commissioners in November last year about using pyrolysis at  the 
landfill. Company representatives said they could build a pyrolysis  plant for $50 
million to $60 million. Tipping fees used by landfill  customers could be pledged 
to pay back industrial bonds that would finance  the plant. They said the 
fees would not have to be raised. 
One decision has been made by the county commission about the future of  
garbage disposal. 
Commissioners have agreed they will not build a new landfill in Citrus  
County. 
Landfills are costly to permit, develop and maintain, and residents  
generally take a dim view of having a landfill built in their back yard.  The county 
is becoming more urbanized. 
Staff will ask commissioners on Jan. 23 to award King Engineering of  Tampa 
the contract to design and engineer a transfer station. After the  design is 
complete, the station can be constructed, if that is the  commission’s desire. 
Transfer option 
Transfer stations are not complicated. Garbage trucks dump their loads  in a 
building. Most of the garbage is compacted and loaded on 18-wheel  trucks for 
the trip to the landfill. 
In Citrus County, about 18 to 20 tractor-trailers loaded with garage  would 
leave the Citrus County Landfill each day. The loads would be  covered to 
prevent trash from blowing onto the highway. 
County staff has recommended hauling the garbage to a private landfill  owned 
by Waste Services Inc. in Osceola County. The landfill is about 20  miles 
southeast of metropolitan Orlando. But the contract has not been  awarded. 
The drawback with a waste transfer station is cost. Landfill tipping  fees 
would substantially increase and might double if Citrus County’s  garbage was 
transferred to Osceola County, according to Meltcalfe. She  said the county has 
only preliminary cost estimates at this point. 
Marion County uses a solid waste transfer station to transport its  garage to 
a landfill in South Georgia. The Citrus County transfer station  would 
operate much the same way, with 18-wheel trucks hauling the garbage  from the Citrus 
County Landfill. 
Environmental agencies 
Richard Tedder, program administrator for the solid waste division of  the 
Florida Department of Environmental Protection, said there are no  pyrolysis 
plants operating in Florida. He said a pyrolysis plant operated  at Walt Disney 
World in the 1970s, but was dismantled. 
However, Tedder said if the two firms that approached Citrus County  could 
meet state permitting rules, he sees no reason why a plant could not  be 
constructed in Citrus County. He said the plant would have to meet air  emission, 
solid waste and stormwater regulations. 
“Is it possible to get a permit if they provide reasonable assurances  it 
could meet our rule requirements?” he said. “I would say it is possible  … 
probable.” 
Tedder said pyrolysis works in the laboratory when a single batch of  
materials is used. He is not sure if anyone has attempted to make  pyrolysis work 
with “continuous flow” of landfill garbage. Jon Johnson,  bureau chief of the 
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Resource  Conservation and Recovery Act 
program, said the EPA would not get involved  in licensing a pyrolysis plant. 
He said Florida’s DEP is authorized to  handle those matters. 
Making recommendation 
Public Works Director Glenn McCracken, who is Metcalfe’s boss, said he  and 
Metcalfe met with a representative of Superior Waste Solutions Inc.,  Michael 
Moore, about building a pyrolysis plant. 
McCracken said the process looks good on paper, but the county is  required 
to dispose of 350 tons of garbage every day at the landfill, and  pyrolysis, as 
best he can tell, is an unproven process. 
Since it would ultimately be his responsibility to make a  recommendation to 
the county commission, McCracken said whatever he  recommends has to be 
financially viable and must be a proven process that  can be permitted by the state. 
“I want something that is a proven process. We’re talking about (using  it 
for) 20 years,” he said. “I want something to recommend to the board  that’s 
been done before and that we know works.” 
McCracken said the companies that want to build the pyrolysis plant  have 
made no formal proposal. The county doesn’t know whether the  companies would 
accept garbage from other counties to make the plant  financially feasible. Also, 
staff is not sure which type of air emissions  a pyrolysis plant produces 
when landfill garbage is burned. 
If the pyrolysis venture falls through, the county wants to be in a  position 
to go forward with the transfer station. For that reason, staff  is moving 
forward with the planning and design phase for the transfer  station while it 
investigates pyrolysis. 
“I’m not being skeptical here. I’d love to find a process for disposing  of 
this stuff without having to bury it,” McCracken said. “I don’t think  you 
will find anyone on staff or among the commissioners who are not open  to doing 
it some other way than burying.” 
But at the same time, McCracken said he has to be comfortable with  whatever 
option they choose because the county is looking for a long-term  solution to 
a big problem that won’t go away — how to dispose of 350 tons  of garbage 
daily.


Leonard 

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