Covanta Resource Recovery Facility (Energy-from-Waste) Virtual Field
Covanta Resource Recovery Facility (Energy-from-Waste) Virtual Field Trip | BIOL 106 | 20 points Covanta diverts a portion of Montgomery County’s municipal waste (i.e., trash) to their facility in Dickerson, MD for generating electricity from combustion. There are a small number of plants like this in the United States. Most other localities dispose of their waste in landfills. In this virtual field trip, you will learn more about this facility, how it works, and its relationship with the county. For this virtual field trip, visit the following links and answer the questions. Explore through the websites—there is a lot of interesting information even though I did not create questions for all of it. For all responses, answers must be written in your own words. How The Process Works – https://www.covanta.com/Covanta-Map/Virtual-Tour This virtual tour is of one of their facilities in New York and not exactly the same as the one here in Montgomery County, but most processes are similar. How do we know how much waste is coming into a facility? (1 point) What happens on the tipping floor? (1 point) How is trashed moved from the pit of trash to the combustion chambers? (1 point) At what temperature is the trash burned? (1 point) In general, how do we go from burning waste to electricity being sent to homes? (1 point) What are some systems Covanta has in place in regards to water use and air pollution? (1 point) What are the two outputs of the incineration process? What does Covanta do with these products? (1 point) The Montgomery County Plant – https://www.covanta.com/Our-Facilities/Covanta-Montgomery 8. How long as Covanta been in operation in Montgomery County? (1 point) 9. How much waste is processed per day at Covanta? Showing your math, how much trash is this per month? Per year? What are your impressions of these values? (2 points) 10. Where does our trash go first, once it leaves our home? Then, how does it get to Covanta? What is the advantage of this type of transport? [This last part of the isn’t on the website, but if you happen to know this from somewhere else, put your answer here!] (2 points) Covanta’s Environmental Impact – https://www.covanta.com/Sustainability (you’ll need to click through the links on these pages to get the answers) 11. How does a waste-to-energy plant differ from an incineration plant? (1 point) 12. How does Covanta still promote recycling? (1 point) 13. How is burning our waste for energy better than putting the waste in a landfill? (1 point) Covanta Montgomery Emissions Data – https://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/SWS/Resources/Files/rrf/mda-compliance-190927.pdf On page 15 of this report is a table of emissions data from one of the combustion units at Covanta Montgomery. The first column is the parameter, or pollutant measured. The second, third, and fourth columns are reps or repetitions – essentially, they tested 3 times. The fifth column is the average of these columns and the sixth column is the maximum permissible limit under the EPA permit. To answer the questions that follow, select any of the parameters that have readings for all three reps and have a number listed in the permit limit. 14. What is the name of the parameter you selected? Doing quick research, what is the impact of that pollutant in the environment? (Include a link to your source). (2 points) 15. How does the measured parameter compare to the EPA limit? (1 point) 16. In the community surrounding the plant, many residents fear that they are being exposed to lots of pollutants. Given the information in this table, what would you tell the community members? (2 points) SCIENCE HEALTH SCIENCE NURSING BIOL 106
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