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Show Burn Plant progressing on time By DONETA GATHERUM LAYTON -- Although it is barely bare-ly visible from SR 193. the Davis County Solid Waste Management waste-to-energy plant is no longer a "proposal." It is a 25 percent completed reality. A person can look carefully north of SR 193 and see blue structural steel against the blue sky. This is the frame work of two large burners that will convert waste products into steam and sterile ster-ile ash. The steam will be carried through a pipeline under the runway run-way at Hill Air Force Base and into the Base's heating and cooling system. sys-tem. The pipeline is now being laid. THE WASTE-to-energy plant is being constructed by Brown and Root Associates with headquarters in Houston. Tex. Brown and Root are building a "sister" plant in Savannah. Ga. Both plants will be operated by Katy-Scghcr. a Belgium-based company that currently current-ly operates 10 waste-to-energy plants in France and four in Belgium. Bel-gium. Katy-Scgher engineers are working closely with the construction construc-tion in Davis County. The plant will utilize a special patented chrome-nickel grate that is used exclusively by Katy-Scgher. Katy-Scgher. The grate is sectional and the chrome-nickel alloy gives the grate a life-expectency of in excess of seven years. This is a major improvement im-provement over other high stress steel grates that need frequent re placement. THE DAVIS County plant and the Savannah, Ga. plant are the first to be constructed by Katy-Scgher Katy-Scgher in the United States. Both are scheduled to open in the summer sum-mer of 1987. Brown and Root are building a third waste-to-encrgy plant in San Marcos. Calif. Jim Young, the Davis County plant manager, says with the new pollution control technology developed recently, the possibility of many waste-to-energy plants has greatly increased especially in California. THE WASTE-to energy plant will be a 100 foot structure. Forty feet will be underground and 60 feet will be above ground. Because the plant sits on 23 acres considerably consider-ably north of SR 193. only a small portion of the building will be visible visi-ble from the main highway. The building will be tan and green to compliment its surroundings. A 1 10 foot above ground level smoke stack w ill carry emissions, principally princip-ally heat waves, into the atmosphere. atmos-phere. Davis County's waste-to-energy plant is a mass burn system. Everything Every-thing is burned and the heat is sent to boilers where steam is generated. gener-ated. There is no attempt to separate sepa-rate material or to use the waste in any other way. RDF (Refuse-Derived (Refuse-Derived Fuel) plants have encoun- Continued on page two t Bnim plant ottsc&dtale j Continued from page one tered some technical problems that have led to failure. There has never been a failure in a mass burn plant, Mr. Young notes. DURING THE first phase of plant construction, a de-watering system was installed to keep the construction site dry. Now that most of the underground structural work is complete, this drain system has been removed and the concrete has been water proofed with a rubber rub-ber membrane. It is anticipated that this will b; a dry plant. The plant has four main parts. Commercial garbage trucks will enter a receiving area at ground level. The inside dumping bays are five in number. They are enclosed and the area is at zero-level air pressure to prevent the debris from scattering. DEBRIS IS dumped into a 2.000 ton capacity storage area and then moved by cranes into one of two burners. Each burner has a 200 ton per day capacity with a 15 percent over load factor. Sterile ash falls from the burners into pits which are emptied as needed and the sterile material will be hauled to the landfill. Polluting particulants are transfered to an electrostatic precipitator which neutralizes everything including AlVl ARCHITECTURAL DRAWING of the waste-to-energy Burn Plant. When completed, the plant will produce steam for Hill AFB from county garbage. the mostrharmful sulphur dioxide which can cause acid rain. A lime injection system will also be used in the plant. Because the material is now inert, it doesn't have to be treated as toxic waste and it can be deposited in a landfill. The Davis County waste-to-energy plant has tenative Utah Bureau of Air Quality Quali-ty emissions control approval. The only step left before final approval is given is the public hearing process. pro-cess. MR. YOUNG says the goal of the Waste Management District is to start the system at 350 tons garbage per day. An enclosed cubical will be built at the burn plant site for pick-up trucks and trailers that are carrying clippings, yard clean-up material and other burnable material. The debris will be transfered from the cubical into the main plant by the company staff. Building materials, engine parts and other non-burnable non-burnable junk will continue to be taken directly to the landfill. BEFORE THE waste-to-energy plant opens in 1987, two areas still need to be resolved, Mr. Young noted. First, the Special Service . District is still exploring the possi- -' bilities of placing refuse transfer stations in the Southern part of the county. Second, some determination determina-tion about ownership and management manage-ment of the existing NARD landfill needs to be made. Representatives from the Special Service District, the county and many of the cities involved in these areas are in dialogue dia-logue on both issues, Mr. Young says. |