Owner: The Harrisburg Authority
Operator: Covanta Harrisburg Inc.
After decades of struggling with serious air contamination issues and large financial losses, this Pennsylvania waste-to-energy facility, which was built in 1972, was in need of an extreme makeover. In the wake of an unsuccessful $84 million retrofit attempt in 2005, the faltering facility’s last hope lay with a Covanta project team that took over its operation in 2007. After almost two years of hard work, the facility is now producing up to 17 MW while achieving its environmental compliance goals and earning substantial revenues.
These days, the Harrisburg Resource Recovery Facility (HRRF), which is the oldest operating waste-to-energy (WTE) facility in the U.S., is a picture of success. It has three combustion units, each rated at 266.6 tons of municipal waste per day with the ability to generate 85,092 lb per hour of steam at 630 psig and 760F (Figure 1). Currently, the steam is used to generate electricity for plant load usage and for export.
1. Renovation rescue. In 2006, The Harrisburg Authority signed an operation and maintenance agreement with Covanta Harrisburg Inc. that included a $28 million construction management agreement for the retrofit and upgrade of the Harrisburg Resource Recovery Facility, which began operation in 1972. Courtesy: The Harrisburg Authority
For many years, however, the facility was considered a polluting pariah by Harrisburg locals, who complained about the dark plumes laden with dioxin and other toxic substances emitted by the plant, which drifted over the nearby Susquehanna River and the entire city, according to published reports in the Sunday Patriot-News, the Harrisburg newspaper. The local newspaper also reported that many Harrisburg citizens objected to the heavy financial costs they had to bear through increased property taxes levied as a result of ineffective management of the municipally owned facility.
In late 2006, The Harrisburg Authority contracted with Covanta Harrisburg Inc. and teamed up to turn around the HRRF, which was severely distressed, underperforming, and on the verge of closing. Fortunately, since Covanta took over operations, the HRRF’s consistent operational performance has allowed the facility to generate revenue from the sale of electricity and the processing of waste reliably and predictably.
The U.S. Waste-to-Energy Industry
In October, POWER interviewed several Covanta personnel who work at the HRRF, including Paul Gilman, chief sustainability officer.
In the U.S., 87 WTE plants operating in 25 states safely dispose of approximately 30 million tons of municipal solid waste (MSW) per year and use it as a fuel source to generate enough renewable energy to power an estimated two million homes a year, Gilman explained. All together, these facilities generate approximately 17 million kWh of electricity per year.
According to Gilman, WTE facilities generated roughly 7% of nonhydro renewable energy in 2008; however as a percentage of total electricity production, it was only 0.4%. "Covanta generates approximately 68% of the total [WTE] electrical generation in the U.S., up from roughly 59% in 2007," he explained.
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