MSW Heavy Hitters Specially outfitted heavy equipment - Heartland Water Technology
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MSW
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2022
www.mswmanagement.com
Heavy
Hitters
Specially outfitted
heavy equipment
Not a Shred of Doubt
It’s Not Magic
A Clean Transfer
Cogeneration for Onsite Evaporation of Landfill Leachate RO Concentrate The Cumberland County Improvement Authority Solid Waste Complex maximizes the value of its onsite Landfill Gas-to-Energy Facility by using engine exhaust to evaporate landfill leachate reverse osmosis concentrate with Heartland’s CoVAP Solution. BY JOHN WEIGOLD Location: Deerfield, NJ Key Takeaways for evaporation improves engine Cumberland County Improvement • RO Concentrate Treatment – efficiency and cost-effectively Authority Solid Waste Complex direct contact evaporation is one evaporates leachate • 275 acres permitted of the best ways to treat chal- • Environmental Sustainability – • Over 6 million tons of waste in lenging Reverse Osmosis (RO) through onsite evaporation, The place concentrate Authority is taking significant • Receives approximately 750 tons • Cogeneration for Evaporation – steps toward achieving their sus- per day of solid waste beneficial use of engine exhaust tainability goals 26 MSW Management January/February 2022
rose to over $1M per year. Addi-
tionally, the Authority recognized
important environmental impacts
and risks associated with so many
trucks on the road hauling concen-
trated leachate.
Energy Power Partners
The Authority first partnered with
Energy Power Partners (EPP) to
install a renewable landfill gas to
energy plant which began opera-
tions in November of 2008. EPP is
a private market fund manager that
specializes in developing renewable
energy projects. EPP owns and oper-
ates the landfill gas-to-energy plant,
Figure 1. Profile view of the Heartland CoVAP Leachate Evaporation Facility located at the Solid Waste Complex.
The plant uses three Caterpillar
• Energy Efficiency – beneficial led several projects at the county’s 3520 engines to generate 4.8 MW of
use of engine jacket heat preheats Solid Waste Complex in Deerfield, renewable electricity.
water and improves treatment NJ. One such project has improved In early 2018, EPP saw an oppor-
effectiveness both economic and environmen- tunity to help the Authority address
• Economic Benefits – RO Con- tal sustainability for the county by its leachate disposal challenges and
centrate treatment reduces overall installing an on-site landfill leachate increase the overall efficiency of
leachate treatment costs treatment plant. the landfill gas-to-energy plant at
the same time by beneficially using
Case Study Overview Reverse Osmosis engine waste heat to evaporate con-
In 2018, Operators of the Cumber- (RO) Concentrate centrated leachate using the CoVAP
land County Improvement Authority The Solid Waste Complex, like all configuration of Heartland’s LM-HT
(“The Authority”), in partnership landfills, generates landfill leachate. Concentrator. Figure 3 shows the
with their landfill gas-to-energy plant Leachate is wastewater that accumu- energy distribution of a typical recip-
operator Energy Power Partners, saw lates when rain falls onto a landfill. rocating engine which is generally
an opportunity to reduce operating The Authority is the only solid waste only 36% efficient. Sources of heat
expenses for the county Solid Waste complex in the State of New Jersey loss include exhaust, friction, and
Complex while meeting key sustain- with a direct discharge permit for jacket water.
ability goals for the Authority. By treated leachate. A treatment facil-
installing the Heartland Water Tech- ity utilizing a combination of ultra- CoVAP Configuration
nology CoVAP leachate evaporation filtration and reverse osmosis (RO) CoVAP stands for Cogeneration for
system (see Figure 1), The Authority systems, shown in Figure 2, removes Industrial Evaporation. The Heart-
has saved concentrated leachate trans- contaminates and generates clean land Concentrator was designed and
port and disposal costs while increas- water. The contaminates, however,
ing energy efficiency and reducing are separated into a smaller waste
the environmental impact of the Solid stream, called RO Concentrate,
Waste Complex. which is generally three to four
times the strength of raw leachate,
The Authority and which requires further treat-
The Authority’s mission is the devel- ment for disposal.
opment, financing, and integration Changes in regulation and a
of projects, strategies, and initiatives requirement to have multiple dis-
All images: Heartland Water Tech
integral to the sustainability of the posal options forced the Authority
economic and environmental future to haul significant amounts of the
of Cumberland County, NJ. In line concentrated liquid over 40 miles to
with this mission, the Authority has the Delaware County Regional Water
Quality Authority (DELCORA) in
Figure 2. Concentrated Leachate from Chester, PA. With 25 truck trips per Figure 3. Typical Reciprocating
the RO Plant requires treatment week, transport and disposal costs Engine Energy Distribution
www.mswmanagement.com 27
2
1
Figure 4. (1) Hot generator exhaust gas is ducted together to provide thermal energy for evaporation in the
Heartland Concentrator (2).
patented for using waste heat from slight negative pressure and pulls the reusing the exhaust and jacket water,
engines or turbines beneficially to heat across wastewater using a direct thermal energy costs, which are often
evaporate wastewater. This is a clas- contact approach. Additionally, heat the most significant cost associated
sic Cogeneration solution. from jacket loss is reused to pre-heat with evaporation, were removed. In
The Authority’s CoVAP configu- feed water and increase the effi- the same project, the Authority both
ration utilizes ~900°F engine exhaust ciency of the process. saved cost and reduced the carbon
from three Caterpillar 3520 engines. For the Solid Waste Complex, The footprint of the landfill.
As shown in Figure 4, the exhaust is CoVAP solution has several impor-
ducted together and transferred to tant benefits. By beneficially using Results
the Heartland Concentrator which the engine exhaust, EPP was able to EPP began operation of the Heartland
evaporates the concentrated leach- increase the overall efficiency of the Concentrator in January of 2021. The
ate. The concentrator operates under plant. Additionally, by beneficially project has been considered success-
ful both economically and
environmentally.
Chart 1 shows the water
treatment performance
of the leachate treatment
system between June 1 and
August 31, 2021. Total sol-
ids concentration increased
from 5,000 mg/l in the raw
leachate to over 300,000 mg/l
in the Heartland residual.
Chart 1. Wastewater Treatment, July–August 2021 This residual concentration
28 MSW Management January/February 2022
Table 1. Energy Efficiency Improvement
corresponded with an over 97% total road. Every eliminated trip reduces
system volume reduction. The remain- the environmental risk of hauling Due to its partnership
ing highly concentrated residual waste leachate around the state of New Jer-
slurry is suitable for landfill disposal sey and further shrinks the carbon
with EPP and Heartland,
which further reduces the require- footprint of the solid waste complex the Authority has reduced
ments for offsite disposal. by eliminating truck emissions. its annual disposal
Table 1 shows the improvement in Before installing the concentrator,
energy efficiency associated with the the solid waste complex was hauling
costs by 20–25% while
capture and beneficial reuse of the 25 trucks per week of RO Concentrate increasing the energy
engine exhaust. By increasing energy to wastewater treatment plants for plant’s efficiency.
efficiency to over 75%, the Authority disposal. Due to its partnership with
has reduced its carbon footprint and EPP and Heartland, the Authority while creating environmentally
taken steps toward achieving its sus- has reduced its annual disposal costs friendly and sustainable systems is
tainability goals. by 20–25% while increasing the effi- integral to the ongoing operations of
ciency of the energy plant. The Authority and its partners.”
Conclusion Said President/CEO of The
Onsite leachate treatment reduces Authority Gerard Velazquez, III, “The John Weigold is with Heartland
costs and removes trucks from the ability to implement these programs Water Technology
www.mswmanagement.com 29
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