The Palm Beach Resource Recovery Corporation facility was designed to reduce the volume of the county's wastes, generate electricity, and maximize the recovery of aluminum and ferrous metals.
The facility processes up to 2,000 tons of household and business trash (called municipal solid waste or MSW) per day, operating seven days per week. It is comprised of three operating plants: a refuse derived fuel (RDF) processing plant, a combustion plant which includes pollution control equipment, and a turbine generator plant.
The facility, which encompasses approximately 40 acres of a 1,320-acre Authority-owned tract, employs approximately 160 full-time employees, and approximately 60 full-time contract workers.
Waste, which is collected from homes and businesses in Palm Beach County is delivered to transfer stations, then transported by large trailers to the resource recovery facility. Any hazardous materials are separated from the waste at the transfer station for appropriate disposal. Waste is delivered inside a large building, loaded onto conveyor where tires and oversized bulky waste is removed. The waste is then shredded, and ferrous materials are removed by a magnet system. After size separation, aluminum cans are removed by hand as the material travels over the conveyors. A final shredding and separation process produces combustible RDF and non-combustible residue. The RDF is then combusted in a furnace to create steam, which is then used to generate 60 megawatts of electricity that is sold to Florida Power & Light.
The facility was built by a joint venture of Babcock & Wilcox and Bechtel Civil, Inc., and is operated by Babcock & Wilcox under a 20-year contract.
The Babcock & Wilcox Company is a subsidiary of McDermott International, Inc. (NYSE:MDR), a leading worldwide energy services company. McDermott subsidiaries manufacture steam-generating equipment, environmental equipment, and products for the U.S. government. They also provide engineering and construction services for the offshore oil and natural gas industries.
