Recent News

• Harnessing the Energy of Trash
  by Alyssa A. Lappen, inFocus Journal, Volume III: Number 3
  Fall 2009
  
  
• Aluminum can recycling rate increased to 54.2% - Click here for the complete article in Waste & Recycling News
  (Located on the bottom right hand side of the page, titled "Can recycling rate increases").
  
  
• Researchers Discover Use for Carbon Dioxide in Conversion of Biomass Into Biofuel
  Biomass utilization research by Prof. Marco Castaldi of WTERT and Associate Director of the Earth Engineering Center of Columbia University.
  
  
• Professor Nickolas Themelis of the Earth Engineering Center is an invited speaker at the Vienna 9th International Conference on Value and Recovery of Waste Management.
  Click here for more information on the event.
  
  
• Pushing the Boat Out: The Riverside Resource Recovery Facility
  New WTE for south-east London, under construction near Thames River, will receive 500,000 tons of MSW per year by tug and barge.
  
  
• Vist of Lisbon Waste Management and WTE Facilties in Lisbon, Portugal
  
  
• Op-Ed article of Professor Themelis in Cape Cod Times
  October 21st, 2009
  
  
• After autoclaving most hospital wastes go to landfills - Click here for the complete article in Waste & Recycling News
  (Located on the right hand side of the page, titled "New Rules Force Hospitals to Rethink Waste").
  
  
• The Canadian Institute is holding a two-day Conference on Waste-Based Energy in Toronto, November 23-24. Prof. Themelis is chairing the 2nd day of this important meeting.
  Click here to view the program of the event.
  
  
• EPA Credits Recycling and Waste-to-Energy with Carbon Savings in 2006
  Waste-to-energy recovery systems that combusted 31.4 million tons of MSW resulted in the avoidance of 17 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent GHG emissions in 2006.
  
  
• Presentations on waste management in the cities of Vienna, Munich, Düsseldorf, Copenhagen, and New York City/California at the 2009 Florence meeting organized by Cispel Toscana of Italy.
  
  
• Our SOFOS Database is now back up and running! Please follow the "Search SOFOS" link to the left or Click Here to search through all our papers on WTE.
  
  
• China's Trash Incinerators Loom as Global Pollution Hazard, by Keith Bradsher
  Old-time Incinerators are being built in China and give a bad name to modern WTEs that are also operating in the country.
  
  
• The magazine Waste & Recycling News is now available in digital format! Please Click Here to view August 3rds edition. Click the Back Issues button on the left of the page to see past issues. Please visit their website at www.wasterecyclingnews.com.
  
  
• Waste and Biomass Valorization is the first dedicated journal to research and practice on the transformation of waste and biomass to energy, fuels, and other useful materials (valorization), with particular focus on environmental quality and sustainability goals. Professor Themelis and Professor Castaldi of Columbia University are on the editorial board.
  Papers can be submitted to www.editorialmanager.com/wave/.
  
  
• Report by Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI):
  Reconsidering MSW as a Renewable Energy Fuel
  by Brian Glover and Justin Mattingly
  
  
• Waste Incineration and Waste Prevention: Not a Contradiction in Terms
  Recently, various press reports on waste management in Germany have drawn attention to a supposed contradiction between waste incineration and waste prevention. The main claim was that the current expansion of waste incineration in Germany would thwart further efforts at waste prevention and block further advances in recycling and waste management. The present paper by the German Federal Environment Agency (Umweltbundesamt, UBA) provides a detailed analysis of the current situation and 10 arguments on this issue. It seeks to clarify the facts and put the discussion on a more factual basis.
  
  
• The Biomass Thermal Energy Council Achieves Milestone
  The Biomass Thermal Energy Council (BTEC), a non-profit association dedicated to advancing the use of biomass for heat and other thermal energy applications, would like to thank all of its Founding Members for helping build this new organization. Formed in January 2009, BTEC ended its Founding Member period last week with 57 members in 24 U.S. states and four countries.
  
  
• The Growing Role of Waste-to-Energy in the U.S.
  a presentation by Professor Marco J. Castaldi
  
  
• 17th Annual North American Waste-to-Energy Conference: (Highlights)
  An Investigation into the Syngas Production from Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) Gasification Under Various Pressures and CO2 Concentration Atmospheres
  by Eilhann Kwon, Kelly J. Westby and Marco J. Castaldi
  
  The Center for Sustainable Utilization of Resources: Quantifying Climate Change Impacts of Managing Wastes
  by Maria Zannes, Morton Barlaz, Marco J. Castaldi and Nickolas J. Themelis
  
  Quantitative Analysis of the Flow, Mixing, and Size Segregation Phenomena of Municipal Solid Waste Particles on a Traveling Grate of Waste-To-Energy (WTE) Combustion Chamber
  by Masato R. Nakamura, Marco J. Castaldi, and Nickolas J. Themelis
  
  Technical and Economic Impacts of Pre-Shredding the MSW Feed to Moving Grate WTE Boilers
  by Garrett C. Fitzgerald and Nickolas J. Themelis
  
  Potential for Reducing the Capital Costs of WTE Facilities
  by Nickolas J. Themelis and Saman Reshadi
  
  
• 16th Annual North American Waste-to-Energy Conference: (Highlights)
  An Investigation of the Thermal Degradation Mechanisms of a Waste Tire Through Chemical Analysis Including Hydrocarbons, Benzene Derivatives, and Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) at High Temperature
  by Eilhann Kwon and Marco J. Castaldi
  
  Use of Statistical Entropy and Life Cycle Analysis to Evaluate Global Warming Potential of Waste Management Systems
  by Scott Kaufman, Eilhann Kwon, Nikhil Krishnan, Marco J. Castaldi, and Nickolas J. Themelis
  
  The Effects of Varied Hydrogen Chloride Gas Concentrations on Corrosion Rates of Commercial Tube Alloys Under Simulated Environment of WTE Facilities
  by Shang-Hsiu Lee and Marco J. Castaldi
  
  CO2 Enhanced Steam Gasification of Biomass Fuels
  by Heidi C. Butterman and Marco J. Castaldi
  
  Developments in Thermal Treatment Technologies
  by Nickolas J. Themelis
  
  Potential for the First WTE Facility in Mumbai (Bombay) India
  by Perinaz Bhada, and Nickolas J. Themelis
  
  
• A Sustainable Solution
  a presentation by Mr. Hakan Rylander of Sweden at the Global Waste Management Symposium (GWMS), Colorado, September 2008
  
  
• Letter by the Energy Recovery Council to the Energy and Commerce Committee, U.S. House of Representatives
  April 21, 2009
  
  
• Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Olympia Snowe (R-ME) introduced legislation this week which would establish a renewable portfolio standard (RPS) and defines Waste-to-Energy as an eligible renewable
  
  
• Comments of Prof. Nickolas Themelis to Sub-Committee on Renewable Energy of NYS Assembly
  April 1, 2009
  
  
• Summary of the LF-WTE Meeting on Climate Impacts of U.S. Waste Management Industry, Washington, DC
  January 28, 2009
  
  
• A bipartisan group of 15 senators sent a letter to the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) and ranking member Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) urging that Waste-to-Energy be included in any renewable portfolio standard considered by the Senate
  
  
• The Economist Special Report on Waste: What’s Wrong with Policies on Waste, and How to get them Right
  Febuary 26, 2009
  
  
• On February 17, President Obama signed the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (H.R. 1, otherwise known as “the stimulus bill”) into law, which contained several provisions that could benefit Waste-to-Energy
  
  
• A Report Published in the International Journal of Health Geographics Concluding that Waste-to-Energy does not Impact Health
  
  
• Covanta Energy has been named a "Climate Action Leader" by the California Climate Action Registry
  
  
• WTERT Greece:
  On Thursday, January 29, Dr. Stratos Kalogirou, Chair of SYNERGIA (sister organization of WTERT in Greece), was invited by the Permanent Environmental Committee of the Greek Parliament (Chair: Mr. Kyriakos Mitsotakis) to make a presentation on the advantages of WTE for Greece and the consequent need to alter the present national plan for waste management. The meeting was attended by representatives of the major parties and by Mr. Nikitas Kaklamanis, Mayor of Athens, who also made a presentation. The SYNERGIA presentation was received favorably and many questions were addressed to Mr. Kalogirou. At the end of the meeting, Mr. Mitsotakis stated that this matter was of great importance to Greece and would be followed up by the Environmental Committee. The meeting was recorded and broadcast on the channel of the Parliament of Greece on February 3, 2009.
  
  
• A new report was published in the International Journal of Health Geographics concluding that waste-to-energy does not impact health.
  The study examined the relation between exposure to the emissions from a municipal solid waste combustor and risk of birth defects in a northern Italy community, using Geographical Information System (GIS) data to estimate exposure and a population-based case-control study design.  By modeling the emissions, the study mapped the 228 births and induced abortions with diagnosis of congenital anomalies observed during the 1998-2006 period, together with a corresponding series of control.  The study found that the prevalence of anomalies in the offspring was substantially comparable to that observed in the control population. Furthermore, congenital anomalies did not decrease during a prolonged shut-down period of the plant.  It concluded that the findings do support the hypothesis that the environmental contamination occurring around a waste-to-energy plant may induce major teratogenic effects.  To view the entire study online, please click here.  



• Susan Thorneloe of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and researchers at North Carolina State University have published a new study entitled “Is It Better To Burn or Bury Waste for Clean Electricity Generation?” in the Journal of Environmental Science and Technology.
  According to the report, the use of municipal solid waste to generate electricity through waste-to-energy and landfill-gas-to-energy projects represents roughly 14% of U.S. nonhydro renewable electricity generation. The authors state that this paper is the first to present a comprehensive set of life-cycle emission factors per unit of electricity generated for these energy recovery options. The paper finds that discarded MSW is a viable energy source for electricity generation in a carbon-constrained world.  The paper also finds that waste-to-energy is capable of producing an order of magnitude more electricity from the same mass of waste than landfill-gas-to-energy. In addition, the paper concludes that “waste-to-energy appears to be a better option than landfill-gas-to-energy.  If the goal is greenhouse gas reduction, then WTE should be considered as an option under U.S. renewable energy policies.”  To view paper online, please click here.  

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