Burning Municipal Solid Waste (MSW)

Burning municipal solid waste (MSW) or garbage in waste-to-energy plants certainly results in less waste being buried in landfills. However, burning this garbage has the potential to produce air pollution and release chemicals into the air. Since some of these are hazardous to people and the environment if not properly controlled, there are strict environmental rules governing waste-to-energy plants, requiring them to use air pollution control devices such as scrubbers, fabric filters, and electrostatic precipitators to capture air pollutants. Scrubbers clean emissions from waste-to-energy facilities by spraying a liquid into the combustion gases to neutralize the acids present in the stream of emissions. Fabric filters and electrostatic precipitators also remove particles from the combustion gases. The particles—called fly ash—are then mixed with the ash that is removed from the bottom of the waste-to-energy furnace. A waste-to-energy furnace burns at high temperatures (1,800°F to 2,000°F), which breaks down the chemicals in MSW into simpler, less harmful compounds.

Lee Enterprises Consulting (LEC) offers a wide range of services in biofuels, biochemicals, biotechnologies, biomaterials, synthetic biology commercialization, and feedstocks.  The company has business and financial services like due diligence, feedstock availability, grants and loans, and bio market research.  The company can assist with projects involving MSW,  and technical and engineering-related services like techno-economic analysis, environmental evaluations, feasibility studies, risk analysis, and expert witness engagements.   The company also has strategic partnerships in place to assist clients with insurance, legal, accounting, plant fabrication, feedstock procurement.   With over 150 experts worldwide, Lee Enterprises Consulting also has experts in anaerobic digestion, fermentation, biomass, conversion technologies for things like tires and railroad ties, organic synthesis, fuel additives, ethanol gas, biodiesel fuel including algae biofuels, solid-state and industrial fermentation, green energy grants, ag-biotech, agricultural waste, alcohol fuels, alternative proteins and animal-free products, sustainable foods, beverage fermentation, biocatalysis, biodiesel conversion, biogas production, biomass power, carbon intensity, co2 utilization, combined heat & power, Fischer-Tropsch technology, food waste, hydrothermal carbonization, industrial enzymes, landfill management, microbial fermentation, organic synthesis, plastic pyrolysis, plastic recycling, plastic waste, pyrolysis oil, reactor design, renewable identification number, the Renewable Fuel Standard (rfs2), solid recovered fuels, torrefaction and torrefied biomass, waste to energy, and waste-to-hydrogen.   This is a multidisciplinary group of green energy consultants that is a virtual “one-stop-shop” for any client need and handles projects of all types and sizes.

Look at our 150+ experts and the services we provide.  Most of our experts are also available to advise and serve as expert witnesses in bioeconomy litigation matters.  For the larger projects, we specialize in putting together full-service, interdisciplinary teams with one point of contact.  See a video about LEC here.  Call us at 1+ (501) 833-8511 or email us for more information.