Olmsted County Waste-to-Energy Facility (OWEF) 

Yes, we are testing that now. We have built one road.

Fly ash from coal power plants is used in concrete in the USA

Thank you for the question. We apologize for the delayed response; we’ve had some difficulty receiving comment notifications from RU-vid. The OWEF has the capacity to process up to 400 tons of garbage per day. In 2018, the facility processed approximately 117,500 tons of garbage. This averages out to around 322 tons per day. All residential and commercial garbage collected at the curb in Olmsted County (and Dodge County) is brought to the OWEF.

Great question; before the ash is buried, we use a large magnet attached to the bucket of an excavator to remove ferrous metal (iron). The extracted iron is then recycled. However, we encourage residents to recycle scrap metal-at the Olmsted County Recycling Center Plus or other scrap recycler-instead of throwing it in the garbage. Doing so reduces wear and tear on the Waste-to-Energy Facility and ensures non-ferrous metals (like aluminum) are recycled. In addition, we have looked at mechanically removing metals before the combustion process, but to date, it has been cost prohibitive.

During the land fill, maybe it is just this video but it dumped the ashes directly to the soil. Could this possibly generate leached liquid?

@@beckenbauer1974Back in the Eighties , Didn't they have a Technology to Netraulize Contaminated Soil !!?? Form Tip ! Landfill ! Sites !?

Thank you for the question. It’s important to clarify that the ash from the Olmsted Waste-to-Energy Facility is not dumped on the soil; it’s dumped within the ash disposal cells at the Kalmar Landfill. The ash cells at the Kalmar Landfill are engineered to effectively contain waste and preserve groundwater quality. The ash cells consist of: • A leachate collection system • A 60-millimeter high-density polyethylene (HDPE) plastic liner • A 2.5-foot compacted clay barrier layer • Another 60-millimeter HDPD plastic liner • An additional 3-foot compacted clay barrier layer Water (from rain events) that percolates through ash will be captured in a leachate collection system. Leachate is pumped out and brought to the Water Reclamation Plant in Rochester for treatment.

Thank you for the question. Bulky items (larger than 3’ x 3’ x 3’) can bridge the hoppers and impede the flow of garbage into the combustion chambers

We are changing that soon. We will start sorting out nonferrous and ferrous metals using a magnetic and eddy current system. It will be part of the materials recovery system before the trash is burnt.