TRASH TO KILOWATTS

[Music] [Applause] [Music] in st. Louis Missouri a resource recovery project is underway with the city Union electric company and EPA as the sponsors pollution is people cause each one of us in this country generates a return of solid waste every year the constant growth in per capita production of refuse coupled with population growth and concentration of people in the urban areas is a major consideration in the management of solid waste the solving of the problem begins with storage at the home or business after which the waste must be collected for transport to either disposal or recovery process this plant is a working experiment to solve part of the problem in this period of concern about shortages of energy and natural resources recycling and reuse of waste materials makes good sense environmentally and economically [Music] from all over the city every few minutes the trucks begin arriving at the supplementary fuel processing plant concentrating the household wastes of thousands of people into one place so that recovery systems can be utilized this project under the auspices and funded by the city of st. Louis the Union Electric Company and the US Environmental Protection Agency is an example of how working together we can eventually solve the environmental pollution and energy problems which an overloaded and affluent world presents not only in solid waste disposal but in the conservation of limited supplies of low sulfur fossil fuels it is hard to imagine this garbage and trash been converted into a useful energy source but this experimental process is proving successful the trucks run loaded the plan of the domestic solid waste is scooped onto a conveyor belt the belt is equipped with a scale for weighing the solid waste the mechanized belt elevates the material to a vibratory conveyor which feeds the refuse into the hammer mill [Music] from the hammer mill the material moves to a conveyor belt for elevation into the penthouse where originally the ferrous metals were separated from the rest of the solid waste the separated material fell into a magnetic metals truck and was transported to a scrapyard for eventual reuse in any experimental project problems usually occur solutions to the problems encountered in this energy recovery process will be demonstrated later in this film the pulverized trash free of ferrous metals moves from the storage bin below the penthouse to another belt conveyor for transport by truck to the electrical generating plant each of the huge trucks is jammed to capacity for the 18 mile trip to the plant now this trip may eventually be taken by barge or railway depending on the economics of the situation eighteen miles can be a long way by Road when traffic is heavy and the driver of this truck is lucky in this hour the destination of the trucks is a union electric Merrimack plant where two of four units have been fitted as a part of this experiment so that the shredded refuse can be fired into the furnaces with coal and used as an auxilary fuel human Electric has spent over $800,000 in this program this joint experimental project is viewed as a possible means of reducing the constantly growing problem of waste disposal it is estimated that existing generating plants could easily consume the refuse output of many urban areas although this system saves this company six ton of coal every hour an equal benefit will be to the people of the city of st. Louis and helping solve the problems of energy conservation and solid waste disposal when the cellphone loading transport trucks are in place the refuse is pushed into the plant receiving bin and then onto a conveyor belt which leads to a pneumatic feeder for transport to the Serge there prob the surge bin these pneumatic feeders and blowers convey the refuse into the boiler furnace your pipes carrying pulverized coal lead to each corner of the boiler where there are four coal burners one of the refuse carrying pipes also leads to each corner the boiler is 10 gently fired combustion engineering incorporated windsor kinetic developed and patented a fuel firing process donated to this project in which the material is swirled and burned in suspension at 2500 degrees flash is collected for recycling in the cement industry in this boiler normally 60 tons of coal are used every hour by this experimental process 54 tons of coal are burned with 12 tons of the shredded solid waste per hour the energy output of the steam generator is then fed to turbine generators and the output is constantly checked by Union Electric personnel to ensure that the power needed by the city of st. Louis is being produced the energy needs of this country are several times today what they were ten years ago this experimental project seeks a solution not only did the disposal of solid waste but more importantly converting that solid waste into an energy source early results showed a need to improve on the method used to separate non combustible materials from the waste so an air classifier was installed to separate the combustible organic materials from the rock stone dirt glass and metal this resulted in a more desirable fuel fraction and permitted the recovery of cleaner ferrous metal and a better quality ash residue the ferrous metal is nugget eyes before discharged into the trucks for transport to the blast furnaces of the Granite City Steel Company a subsidiary of national steel corporation at the mill the recycled materials supplements the iron ore used in the manufacture of steel or used by the construction and light metal industries this roll strip steel is just one of the recycle boat byproducts resulting from this new energy source officials of the Union Electric Company are encouraged with the trash to kilowatts project a vice-president with the utility John Bryan made these comments well I'm enthusiastic optimistic about this project there have been problems of course but these have been manageable problems and I believe this new classifier now being installed at the city facility well clear up some of the problem areas that have been more troublesome Union Electric is pleased and proud to have been a part of this project along with the Environmental Protection Agency and the city of st. Louis we feel this project has very real importance and potential for the future working together federal and state agencies and private industry can ensure America's energy needs of the future [Music]