Energy From Waste

Energy-from-Waste (EfW or waste-to-energy) facilities offer a safe, technologically advanced means of waste disposal while also generating clean, renewable energy, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and supporting recycling through the recovery of metals.

Watch a video to better understand how to generate energy from burning trash:

How Energy from Waste (EfW) Works

1. Municipal waste is delivered to the facility and stored in a bunker.

2. The waste is transferred to a combustion chamber where self-sustaining combustion is maintained at extremely high temperatures. The facility maintains the building around the tipping and bunker area under negative pressure and uses this air in the combustion process to control odor.

3. The heat from the combustion process boils water.

4. The steam from the boiling water drives a turbine that generates electricity.

5. Electricity is distributed to the local energy grid.

6. Ash from combustion is processed to extract metal for recycling. It is then combined with residue from the air pollution control process (see items 8 and 9).

7. The combined ash is either disposed of in a monofill (where only ash is stored) that receives only that waste, used as cover material at a conventional landfill, or landfilled with other waste.

8. All gases are collected, filtered and cleaned before being emitted into the atmosphere. The facility manages gas from the combustion process with state-of-the-art air pollution control technology that operates according to state and federal standards.

9. The facility controls emissions of particulate matter primarily through a baghouse (fabric filter).

10. The facility monitors other pollutants and all operating parameters to ensure compliance with permit conditions.

Visit the website of the Town’s facility operator: Covanta Huntington