Consorci per al tractament de residus sòlids urbans del Maresme

The Waste-to-Energy Plant in Mataró will increase the thermal capacity in order to adjust to the new combustible waste

One of the two lines of the Plant has already stopped working in order to start the improvement works

State-of-the-art technology for the control of combustion and the reduction of emissions will be used

The Consorci per al Tractament de Residus Sòlids Urbans del Maresme has put forward a series of improvement actions to increase significantly the thermal capacity of the Waste-to-Energy Plant of Mataró, located in the Centre Integral de Valorització de Residus del Maresme.

The new typology of waste that will reach the combustion process from the separate collection, and the pretreatment and selection in the plant has forced the introduction of some improvements to increase the thermal capacity of the two lines of the Waste-to-Energy plant in Mataró.

The heating power of this new waste is estimated to be between 2,600 and 2,800 kcal/kg, significatively higher than the current 2,000 kcal/kg. For this reason, a 20% increase of the thermal load of each line has been planned.

These improvements include the necessary equipment to use the additional steam generated, as well as the appropriate changes in the current equipment: modifications of the furnaces-boilers to adapt them to the new waste, improvements in the combustion regulation system, improvements in the flue gas cleaning system and the control of emissions, soundproofing part of the process, improvements in the central control system, installation of an emergency power generator, assembly of engine starters, acquisition of strategy spare parts, and installation of a lift and a service lift.

In the Plant, energy is recovered by combustion from the refuse of mixed waste fraction (fraction not collected separately) that cannot be recovered in the facilities where paper/cardboard, light packaging, metal, glass, bricks or organic are recycled. That is, the waste fraction not useful to recycle, including bulky waste, and a part of the waste coming from impurities of organic matter and from the compost refinement process, which amounts to up to 104,500 tons/year.

The Centre will be unoperative for three weeks

In order to introduce all these improvement measures, on November 20 the first line of the Plant was stopped, and on January 22 the second will be stopped too. The Centre will be inoperative for three weeks between the end of January and the beginning of February. Starting to 100% is planned on May 10, 2011. During the time the Plant is not working fully or is entirely stopped, the waste will be sent to the landfills in Hostalets de Pierola or Vacarisses.

News published on 24 November 2010