The Catawba County EcoComplex: A Study in Waste Management, Renewable Energy,
and Synergetic Relationships
A White Paper on Innovative waste solutions for ISWA/APESB World Congress 2009
Author: Barry B. Edwards, PE Director of Utilities and Engineering
County of Catawba; 100A Southwest Boulevard, Newton, NC 28658;
Phone: (828) 4658261; Fax: (828) 4645216;
Email: [email protected]
Catawba County and Solidwaste Management Facts Catawba County is located in the North Carolina foothills 45 miles northwest of Charlotte. Catawba County has eight (8) incorporated municipalities and its total population is approximately 155,000. The County's residents equally reside in rural and urban areas; however, the region is continuing to transform to a more urban county through industrial and commercial growth. Catawba County is heavily industrialized and swells by more than 100% in population during the workday producing over 475 tons of industrial waste daily, which represents 75% of the County’s total average daily waste rate. In 1990, faced with waste reduction mandates and goals set by the State of North Carolina, Catawba County developed a strategy to reduce its then annual disposal rate of 1.51 tons per capita by 10% by 2000 (1.36 tons per capita), 15% by 2005 (1.28 tons per capita), 20% by 2010 (1.21 tons per capita), 25% by 2015 (1.13 tons per capita), and 34% by 2020 (1 ton per capita). The principal strategy employed by County to reduce its waste generation rate is Industrial Ecology. The Industrial Ecology strategy is working. The most recently recorded year (FY 2007‐08) shows Catawba County has reduced its annual per capita disposal rate to 1.22 tons, a reduction of approximately 19.2% from the 1990 baseline year rate. By comparison, the statewide per capita disposal rate for North Carolina was 1.24 tons for FY 2007‐08 and Catawba County ranks second out of 100 counties is waste reduction rate per capita and first among counties with more than 25% in industrial waste stream total. Industrial Ecology Applied to Waste Management Scientifically stated, industrial ecology is a dynamic ecological organism that incorporates living systems with natural systems. When applied fittingly, industrial ecology produces equilibrium between environmental and economic performances and outcomes within environmental limitations. The “new” buzz word used around the globe to express industrial ecology is “Sustainability".
Catawba County has chosen industrial ecology as a tool and format to manage its solidwaste as this design supports waste reduction through harmonization of the life cycle of products and industrial processes. Applying industrial ecology enables Catawba County and its municipalities to develop and sustain a sound industrial base without sacrificing the quality of their shared environment, and helps its private partners to become more competitive by improving their financial and environmental product. All parties of an industrial ecological system improve their productivity: government agencies improve environmental protection and waste management cost through waste reduction, improved policies and regulations, and partnering businesses simultaneously improve their industry competitiveness through minimizing energy and materials usage and lowering feedstock cost.
Catawba County industrial ecology application is an industrial park, the EcoComplex, which is an application that utilizes sustainability to facilitate economic growth through combining environmental, economical and technological components in a combined, soundly engineered, symbiotic system. Catawba County’s industrial ecology application to waste management preserves the County’s ecology by supporting the interactions between organisms and their environment, promoting the wise management of resources for the benefit of current and future generations. The County’s EcoComplex, ecological system, bolsters sustainable communities, natural resources, environmental stewardship, education, and community spirit.
EcoComplex = Economics and Industrial Ecology Catawba County’s EcoComplex design and development currently includes the orchestration of seven professional engineering firms, three universities, and over 15 professional engineers directly involved in the process. The County’s EcoComplex is a system that reallocates industrial and waste management processes from an open loop to a closed loop system in which wastes become the inputs for new processes. The EcoComplex business model promotes economic development through byproduct and resource management and by employing predominantly green and renewable energy. The partnerships and synergies formed between EcoComplex entities use each other’s waste products either as a source of energy (electricity, steam, or heat) or as a raw material for the production of their own product (pallets, lumber, compost, brick shapes/art). These shared relationships bring the old saying of “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure” into real life. In addition to these synergetic relationships, the EcoComplex is also focused on making and using “green” energy and on the economic development of Catawba County. The closed loop system design in Catawba County’s EcoComplex successfully combines energy production, businesses and waste management systems consisting of a Municipal Landfill, Electrical Generating Plant, Bio‐energy Plant, Sludge Management Facility, Lumber, Wooden Pallet, Brick and Pottery Manufacturing Facilities, Greenhouse Operations, and University Research Facilities/Partnerships and incorporates synergetic and symbiotic relationships between industry byproducts and required manufacturing resources. The EcoComplex’s fundamental goal is to promote and employ Catawba County’s MSW and C&D landfills as resource recovery facilities by converting waste streams into commodities and creating green energy through a virtually closed system. The system is designed to recover and employ all usable energy from EcoComplex entities’ byproducts and waste streams. In the future, food waste, livestock and agricultural waste digester gases will be employed to increase the County’s production of electrical and heat energy. A Bioenergy Plant, which is currently in the design phase, will employ the green and renewable energy resources, such as woody waste and biomass waste, from EcoComplex entities to generate electricity, steam, heat, and CO2.
The key Partners or components in the synergetic relationships of the EcoComplex are:
• The Blackburn Resource Recovery Facility (Landfill and Recycling/Waste Diversion)
• The Blackburn ‐ Landfill Gas to Energy Electricity Generating Facility
• Gregory Wood Products (Lumber Manufacturing)
• PalletOne, Inc. (Pallet Manufacturing)
• Profile Products (Erosion and Sedimentation Control Products from Woody Biomass)
• The Bioenergy Facility (Wood burning/gasification; electricity, steam, and heat production)
• The Biosolids Processing Facility (Wastewater sludge management for Catawba County)
• Agricultural, Food and Livestock Waste Gasification and Energy Production
• University Research (Bio‐diesel and Algae production, testing, crop testing, and algae testing)
• Composting/Soils Amendment
• Brick Specialties Company
• Greenhouse
The Blackburn Resource Recovery Facility is the largest component of the EcoComplex. The Blackburn Resource Recovery Facility currently accepts approximately 650 tons of municipal and construction/demolition waste per day. Landfill engineering designed by McGill Associates and Geotechnical engineering by Bunnell‐Lammons Engineering.
The Landfill Gas to Energy Facility is made up of three GE‐Jenbacher landfill gas (methane) burning engine/generator sets that have the capacity to generate approximately 3 Megawatts of electricity per hour; this is enough electricity to power approximately 900 to 1,000 average sized homes. Mechanical and Electrical Engineering Engineering by I C Thomasson Associates and Civil‐site Engineering by McGill Associates.
Gregory Wood Products, the EcoComplex’s first private industry partner, began operations in 2006 and is a 65,000 Board Feet per Hour (BFH) high‐tech dimensional lumber facility. Gregory Wood Products is the EcoComplex’s largest producer of fuel (sawdust, shavings, bark, etc…) and employs around 125 employees.
Pallet One, Inc. is the largest new pallet manufacturer in the United States. PalletOne, the second private industry partner in the EcoComplex, is a manufacturer of new pallets and will begin recycling used pallets in the near future. PalletOne currently has 29 employees at their EcoComplex facility.
Profile Products, an offsite partner, manufactures and distributes a broad line of erosion and sediment control products made from woody biomass, which accelerates seed germination and biodegrades in place. Profile manufactures the industry’s best‐selling inorganic soil amendments for sports fields, golf courses and landscaping. Profile Products uses about 70,000 tons of waste wood from EcoComplex partners and local industries every year to manufacture hydraulic mulch, and as much as 10,000 tons of discarded paper.
The County’s planned Bioenergy Facility will consist of a newly constructed wood Gasifier with electrical and steam production capability. Preliminary Engineering is being performed by Nexterra, General Electric Corporation, Petra Engineering, Energy System Group, Concord Engineering, Camp Dresser and McKee (CDM) and McGill Associates.
The Sewage, Animal and Food Waste Anaerobic Digester Facility (SAFWAD) will consist of two newly constructed anaerobic digesters. One digester will be used to process sewage (wastewater sludge) from wastewater plants and the other digester will process animal and food wastes. Biogas from both digesters will be used to produce electricity and heat through the operation of GE‐Jenbacher Generator sets. The SAFWAD design and development is being performed jointly with the Bio‐Solids Processing Facility. Preliminary Engineering is being performed by Petra Engineering, CDM and Civil Design Concepts (CDC).
food waste
Agricultural, Food and Livestock Waste Gasification and Electrical and Heat Energy
Production Facility
The proposed Bio‐Solids Processing (Sludge Drying) Facility is the finishing plant for the SAFWAD. The proposed facility will have the capacity to serve the wastewater sludge management (SAFWAD) needs of Catawba County and the Unifour region for approximately 20 years. There are currently several sites within Catawba County that are being used by municipalities, both inside and outside the County, for the land application of their wastewater sludge. It is anticipated that several of these municipalities will use the proposed facility instead of continuing to land apply their sludge within Catawba County. The Catawba County Board of Commissioners approved a contract with CDM for design engineering of the new facility in December 2007.
The proposed Agricultural, Food and Livestock Waste Gasification and Electrical and Heat Energy Production Facility will provide farmers with an alternative bio‐waste management option. The proposed system barters livestock feed and/or environmentally safe soil amendment from the County’s EcoComplex to farmers in exchange for their manure and other bio‐wastes. Food waste from the County schools and hospital(s) along with yard waste will
supplement the digestive gasification process. Preliminary Engineering is being performed by Petra Engineering, CDM and CDC.
The University Research Facilities include multiple UNC System Universities. The County and Appalachian State University are developing a Biodiesel Research and Production Facility within the EcoComplex. The University’s research will include the testing of biodiesel that will be produced on‐site as well as by several companies in the region and research, which include
North Carolina Cooperative Extension, on the growing of test crops around the landfill to assess which crops grow best in our climate and which crops produce the best oils for the manufacture of biodiesel. The on‐site production of biodiesel will be used by Catawba County to operate its fleet. The Facility design is underway and is being designed to LEED Platinum standards and will
be used by the County as an educational resource for sustainable construction. The Biodiesel Research and Production Facility is a CDM design and are scheduled to begin fuel production in 2011. Civil‐site engineering is performed by CDC and geotechnical engineering by Bunnell‐Lammons Engineering. The County and the University of North Carolina Charlotte (UNCC) are partnering in Algae and Wood Ethanol Research, which will begin in 2010. The County, General Electric, Nexterra Energy and UNCC are developing a wood gasification and Syngas research project.
The County continues to have conversations with several composting/soil amendment companies who have the potential to become EcoComplex partners including preliminary discussions with a nearby leading retailer regarding the bagging and selling of a compost/soil amendment product and possibly bagged mulch as well. This EcoComplex component is waiting on the needed synergies of the EcoComplex before it can be realized.
A Brick Specialties Company has verbally agreed to locate within the EcoComplex at a later date. This company will produce specialty brick shapes and brick art and has also tentatively agreed to the co‐location of kiln space for local potters to use and to the locating of a classroom type space for a community education component. This EcoComplex component is also waiting on the needed synergies of the EcoComplex before it can be realized.
A 10 acre greenhouse will be employed in Algae Research; however, discussions have been held with a company who is considering the EcoComplex as a location for approximately 100 acres of greenhouse space for the growing of vegetables and/or flowering plants. However, this
EcoComplex component is currently on hold waiting on the synergies to evolve that are the incentives required for it to become a part of the EcoComplex.
Useful Byproducts, Green Energy and Environmental Stewardship are harmonically derived from applying Industrial ecology to a waste management system as shown in Catawba County’s EcoComplex system and practice:
In conclusion, the Eco in EcoComplex = Economics and Industrial Ecology. The Catawba County EcoComplex is a system that is based on the fact that an individual component in a system is best utilized in the context of its relationship with other components and with other systems, rather than in isolation. Thus, any government, jurisdiction, or private group can build and benefit from an Industrial Ecological System such as Catawba County’s EcoComplex.