New Report Focuses on Advanced Air Pollution Control Options for Waste-to-Energy (WTE) Facilities

SWANA’s Applied Research Foundation (ARF) report evaluates options for NO_X control and carbon capture at these facilities

Silver Spring, MD – The Solid Waste Association of North America's (SWANA) Applied Research Foundation (ARF) has released a new report, Advanced Air Pollution Control at Waste-to-Energy Facilities. This report provides a state-of-the-art review— supplemented by case studies—of commercially proven, new and emerging nitrogen oxide (NO_X) and carbon dioxide (CO₂) control technologies that can potentially be deployed in existing WTE facilities.

As discussed in the report, WTE emissions have significantly declined over the last 30 years with seven of the nine regulated pollutants reduced by an average of 95% due to the investment of over $1 billion in air pollution control systems.

Despite these accomplishments, WTE facilities are often targeted by environmental groups to further reduce their emissions since they are often among the largest point source of NO_X and CO₂ emissions in a community, even though the largest source by far of these emissions is generally the transportation sector.

It is SWANA’s hope that this report will serve as a valuable and timely reference document for WTE facility managers as they consider the benefits and costs of investing in additional NO_X control technologies and CO₂ capture systems to further reduce emissions from their facilities. The report also serves as a useful resource for state and local governmental officials evaluating WTE facilities.

Jeremy O’Brien, SWANA’s Director of Applied Research, is quick to recognize the key role that the ARF subscribing organizations play in the ARF research program, stating that “SWANA would like to thank the fourteen ARF subscribing organizations who identified this research topic and provided funding to support this research through their ARF subscriptions.” ¹

The full report is currently only available to SWANA ARF subscribers. SWANA members receive free access to ARF industry reports one year after publication.

Download the executive summary here.

To learn more about SWANA and SWANA’s Applied Research Foundation, visit https://swana.org/ARF.

¹ The 14 organizations that are subscribers to the ARF’s Waste Conversion and Energy Recovery (WCER) research group include: CDM Smith; City and County of Honolulu (HI); ecomaine (ME); City of Edmonton, Alberta (CN); Hennepin County (MN); I-95 Landfill Owners Group (VA); Montgomery County (MD); New River Resource Authority (VA); Olmsted County (MN); Solid Waste Authority of Palm Beach County (FL); Solid Waste Disposal Authority of Huntsville (AL); SWANA Southern New England Chapter; SWANA Minnesota Chapter; and York County Solid Waste Authority (PA).