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OVERVIEW
The Mid-Connecticut Project consists of a 2,850 ton-per-day refuse-derived fuel trash-to-energy facility located in Hartford, four transfer stations, the Hartford landfill, a regional recycling center and the CRRA Trash Museum in Hartford.
The Mid-Connecticut Project was impacted by the Enron bankruptcy. But CRRA's new board and management team have worked to mitigate the impact of that loss, and their recovery of more than $111 million from their bankruptcy claim has stabilized the project's disposal fees.
RDF TRASH-TO-ENERGY FACILITY
The refuse-derived fuel (RDF) process differs from the mass-burn technology used at CRRA’s other trash-to-energy plants. To make RDF, trash is processed two ways:
- First, recyclable metals and non-combustible materials such as grit, metal and glass are separated from the waste at the waste processing facility (WPF). Recyclable commodities are shipped to processors, and the remainder
– called process residue
– is deposited at the Hartford landfill.
- Second, remaining waste is shredded.
The resulting RDF generates a more even, higher-efficiency combustion. RDF is produced at CRRA’s waste processing facility at 300 Maxim Road in Hartford. It began operation in 1988. CRRA utilizes a contractor
– The Metropolitan District
– to operate the WPF.
RDF is moved by conveyor to the power block facility and energy generating facility, located at 1 Reserve Road, Hartford, operated under contract by Covanta Energy.
Today, the 70 towns participating in the Mid-Connecticut project have one of the least costly and most efficient solid waste disposal and recycling solutions in the northeastern United States.
The Mid-Connecticut facility is also the most environmentally sound project in the state, operating far below permitted emissions limits. CRRA added devices to control emissions of oxides of nitrogen (NOx) years before any regulatory requirements. So when you read about other states buying emissions credits rather than reducing emissions, you should understand that the Mid-Connecticut facility is so far below its emissions limits that it is generating the credits that other facilities seek to buy. The Mid-Connecticut Project trash-to-energy facility easily exceeds the strictest emissions standards. Click Emissions Performance > Mid-Connecticut Project to view the test results.
CRRA has also installed a $15 million-dollar odor control system for the WPF. Because of the plant’s unique technology, it had a unique odor problem, but thanks to the new system odor complaints have been reduced to just a handful per year.
The system was designed to draw in an average of 240,000 cubic feet per minute (cfm) of air from the Mid-Connecticut WPF and thermally destroy the odors in the PBF boilers that burn your garbage. Since the typical total air demand for the boilers is 180,000 cubic feet per minute, two regenerative thermal oxidizers will more than make up the difference at a full capacity of 120,000 cubic feet per minute. Put simply, odorous components are literally burned out of the air.
This system has the capacity to completely exchange the air inside the Madison Square Garden arena twice in one hour. Taken another way, the amount of air that would fill four Louisiana Superdomes will be thermally treated each day, rather than carrying potential odors in the prevailing winds toward East Hartford.
REGIONAL RECYCLING CENTER
The Mid-Connecticut Project has a container recycling facility, located at 211 Murphy Road, Hartford, and a paper recycling facility, located at 123 Murphy Road, Hartford. Both are operated under contract to CRRA by FCR.
Click Recycle to learn more about CRRA's recycling operations.
LANDFILL
The Hartford landfill, operated under contract by the Metropolitan District, is actually two landfills – a double-lined ash disposal area and the main disposal area, which receives process residue and other bulky and non-processible waste. The main disposal area features a landfill gas collection system, which captures the methane created by decomposing waste and burns it to generate electricity, and a leachate control system.
Read more about the Hartford landfill.
TRANSFER STATIONS
The Mid-Connecticut Project also has transfer stations in Watertown, Torrington, Essex and Ellington. These transfer stations, where waste from member towns is consolidated for transportation to Hartford, are operated under contract by CWPM.
CRRA TRASH MUSEUM
The CRRA Trash Museum, located at 211 Murphy Road, Hartford, educates more than 20,000 people each year on integrated solid waste management with an emphasis on the importance of reducing waste through source reduction, reuse and recycling. Many residents of the Mid-Connecticut Project become motivated to recycle and learn how to recycle at the museum. Visitors come from all over Connecticut and the world.
To learn more, click Museums.
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