Orange County NC Website
D46-1 <br />AM <br />Comprehensive Review of <br />Solid Waste Collection and Disposal Options <br />• A refuse- dcrived fuel (RDF) technology may impact waste generation minimization <br />efforts with the need to generate more waste for fuel. <br />The selection of a technology, therefore, is not a simple one, but one which can require tradeoffs <br />between one goal with others. Since the risks associated with WTE and WC technology can be <br />substantial, it is critical that the Town recognize and minimize these risks as best it can. The <br />following criteria can be utilized to assess the relative risk of a particular WTE or WC <br />technology: <br />• Degree and Scale of Operating Experience. The technology must be proven. Most <br />existing technologies, other than conventional mass -bum technology, have only been <br />proven in pilot or laboratory operations, or with raw materials other than municipal <br />solid waste. Other technologies have only been commercially operated in small <br />facilities and the scale up to larger sized plants may result in unforeseen problems. <br />• Reliability to Dispose of Municipal Solid Waste. The technology selected must be <br />capable to dispose of solid waste in a reliable manner without frequent mechanical <br />downtimes resulting in diversion of such waste to landfills. <br />• Energy and Material Market Compatibility. The technology must be capable of <br />recovering energy and materials for which markets are available and viable, <br />• Environmental Acceptance. The technology must meet all permitted environmental <br />requirements established by regulatory agencies. <br />+ Cost to the Town. The technology must dispose of the Town's solid waste at a price <br />it is willing to pay given alternative means of disposal. <br />12.2 CLASSIFICATION OF TECHNOLOGIES <br />For the purpose of this report, SCS has divided the processes for disposal of municipal solid <br />waste into two main categories: <br />Conventional WTE Technology <br />Alternative WC Technologies <br />The conventional WTE technologies include mass -burn incineration and smaller, modular units <br />where unprocessed MSW is fired in a boiler or chamber where the heat is recovered in a series of <br />tubes filled with water or in a heat recovery boiler where the heat is recovered in the forth of <br />steam or electricity. Alternatively, shredded MSW with some form of metals recovery can be <br />fired in a chamber either in a dedicated boiler made of water tubes or on a fluidized bed of sand <br />with the energy recovery in the form of steam or converted to electricity. <br />Alternative conversion technologies can be defined as: <br />Alternatives to landfills and standard combustion -based WTE plants <br />Potential to produce by- products and chemicals that could be useful <br />v2.1 155 1 0/22/ 1 2 <br />