TEXTILES.ORG
The Charlotte, N.C.-based Babcock & Wilcox Co. (B&W) announced in a June 29 press release the opening of the Solid Waste Authority (SWA) of Palm Beach County’s advanced waste-to-energy facility, the Palm Beach Renewable Energy Facility 2 (PBREF2).
The B&W press release described it as “the cleanest and most-advanced power plant of its kind in North America,” supplying power for an estimated 44,000 homes and businesses while processing more than 1 million tons of post-recycled municipal solid waste each year.
The press release said that this facility “will reduce reliance on the landfill by up to 90%, while also recycling an estimated 27,000 tons of steel, aluminum, copper, and other metals annually.”
The plant, owned by the SWA and located in West Palm Beach, Fla., was designed, manufactured, and constructed by a consortium of the Babcock & Wilcox Power Generation Group Inc. (B&W PGG) and the Kellogg Brown & Root (KBR Inc.) engineering firm.
The release said that B&W PGG designed and manufactured the plant’s three mass-burn, waste-to-energy boilers, capable of generating up to 95 megawatts of electricity, and its environmental control system. The plant features air-cooled and water-cooled combustion grates and will be operated under a 20-year agreement by B&W PGG’s subsidiary, Palm Beach Resource Recovery Corp., which has operated the adjacent PBREF1 since 1989.
“We would like to thank and congratulate our customer, the SWA, as well as our consortium partner KBR, for a job well-done,” said Paul Scavuzzo, B&W PGG Global Power Division vice president. “The PBREF2 is truly B&W PGG’s flagship project in North America and a shining example of the game-changing potential of waste-to-energy technology.”