Aging waste-to-energy facilities: Refurbish or replace?

As the United States’ inventory of waste-to-energy (WTE) facilities ages, municipal and facility managers face a critical decision: Should they refurbish aging infrastructure to extend service life or replace the entire plant with new technology and capacity? This question is especially timely as WTE facilities in the U.S. average 36 years of operation, exceeding their designed lifespan of 25-30 years.

A report developed by the Solid Waste Association of North America’s (SWANA’s) Waste Conversion and Energy Recovery (WCER) Research Group investigates this question through an extensive review of current research, case studies from Florida WTE plants and financial analyses.

This topic emerged from a practical policy issue in Honolulu, where a 1990 refuse-derived fuel facility underwent a $60 million refurbishment in 2009. With the contract expiring in 2032, Honolulu, along with many other jurisdictions, must decide whether to extend the facility’s life through further refurbishment or invest in a replacement.

Twelve organizations support the WCER Research Group, contributing expertise and funding. Their collective experience informs this report’s findings, intended to guide waste management authorities on cost-effective and sustainable infrastructure decisions.

WTE facility refurbishment

Refurbishment involves significant repairs, upgrades and replacements of key plant components to restore or improve performance and extend service life without building an entirely new facility. Many U.S. WTE facilities have been refurbished after their initial 25-30-year lifespans, often adding 20-30 years of operational time.

A WTE facility refurbishment was completed recently in Pinellas County, Florida. The Pinellas County Waste-to-Energy Facility opened in 1983 with two boilers and one turbine generator. A third boiler and second turbine generator were added in 1986.

The county owns the WTE facility (photo at right), which is managed by the Pinellas Department of Solid Waste and operated by Reworld Waste LLC, headquartered in Florham Park, New Jersey. The WTE facility has a nameplate capacity of 3,150 tons per day (TPD) of municipal solid waste (MSW) and generates 75 megawatts (MW) per hour of electrical power. 

The region’s MSW is processed at the facility, averaging 2,700 TPD. Approximately 30,000 tons of metal are recovered and recycled every year from the combustion residue, equivalent to the quantity required to manufacture about 19,000 automobiles. In 2022, the facility processed nearly 850,000 tons of MSW (averaging 2,329 TPD) and generated enough electricity to power over 45,000 single-family homes and businesses daily.

Since 2015, more than $250 million has been reinvested in the 40-year-old WTE facility as part of a multiyear repair and replacement program to improve boiler availability, throughput, energy generation and utility and reagent use. This project involved rebuilding the facility from chute to stack, restoring it to like-new operating condition and extending its lifespan by 25 years. During this time, the facility continued normal operations.

When committing to the facility refurbishment in 2015, the county concluded the option was more economical than constructing a new WTE facility. One of its primary motivations was to maximize the service life of its landfill, which has about 80 years remaining based on current use. The county reaffirmed its commitment to providing long-term disposal services for its residents and businesses and concluded that the continued use of its existing WTE facility was the best way to fulfill this commitment.

Summary data on the refurbishment costs for the Pinellas County WTE facility are shown in Table 1.

Total cumulative inflation for 2015-2025 equals 33.16 percent (according to the CPI Inflation Calculator at www.in2013dollars.com/us/inflation/2015?amount=233610).

WTE replacement or expansion

When WTE plants reach or exceed 25-30 years, some jurisdictions opt for replacement or expansion. Replacement includes new technologies, improved emissions control (e.g., selective catalytic reduction), carbon capture capabilities and resiting if necessary.

The Solid Waste Authority of Palm Beach County (SWA) is the governmental agency responsible for providing an economical and environmentally conscious integrated solid waste management system for Palm Beach County, Florida.

Renewable Energy Facility 2 (REF 2) is a $672 million state-of-the-art WTE facility commissioned by SWA that became operational in 2015. The REF 2 facility was the first of its kind built in the U.S. in more than 25 years and one of the most advanced and efficient WTE power plants in the world at the time. REF 2 provided enough thermal processing capacity for SWA to handle growing waste volumes in the county and conserve existing landfill airspace.

REF 2 reduces waste going to SWA’s landfill by up to 90 percent, ensuring the landfill lasts until 2053. In the process of reducing waste disposal, it generates 100 MW of electricity for the people and businesses of Palm Beach County. That is enough electricity to power an estimated 45,000 homes and businesses, equivalent to nearly all the homes in Boca Raton, Florida.

At capacity, REF 2 processes more than 1 million tons (907.2 million kilograms) of residual MSW annually and 3,000 tons daily, which is more than 660 curbside trucks’ worth of trash.

In addition, REF 2 recovers about 90 percent of ferrous metals and 85 percent of nonferrous metals from the ashes remaining after the incineration process. Approximately 27,000 tons of steel, aluminum, copper and other metals are recovered annually after the trash is burned. 

REF 2 uses the best available air pollution control technology, ensuring very low air emissions from the facility. REF 2 meets emission permit limits that are the lowest of any renewable energy facility currently combusting MSW in the U.S.

The cost per ton of daily capacity per year of service life is provided for the REF 2 facility in Table 2.

The refurbishment costs for the Pinellas County WTE Facility and new construction for the Palm Beach REF 2 facility are just two of the five examples of refurbishment and replacement facility costs the SWANA report provides. Refurbishment of the two WTE facilities described in the report range from $101,000-$106,000 per ton of daily capacity, or $4,100-$4,300 per TPD capacity per year of extended service life.

Similarly, the costs of replacement for the three WTE facilities presented in the SWANA report range from about $300,000 per TPD capacity to more than $600,000 per TPD capacity or $11,600-$24,600 per TPD capacity per year of extended service life.

Based on SWANA’s analysis, refurbishing WTE facilities rather than replacing them after their initial 25-year service life is the most cost-effective option. WTE facility refurbishment appears to be about one-third of the costs of facility replacement.

The SWANA report also includes a financial analysis of a combined new plant construction plus midlife refurbishment over a 50-year lifespan, concluding that the average tipping fee associated with this facility would be $53.48 in 2025 dollars. In comparison, the national unweighted average landfill tipping fee in the U.S. was $56.80 in 2023. Based on this analysis, it appears the WTE option can be economically competitive with the landfill disposal option when considered over a 50-year period.

Weighing refurbishment and replacement

The following conclusions are offered based on this review of refurbishing or replacing WTE facilities at the end of their original service lives:

• From an economic perspective, it makes sense to refurbish rather than replace a WTE facility after its initial service life (typically 25 years) has been reached. Once the facility has been refurbished and has served the community for 50 years, the facility probably should be replaced.
• Reasons to consider replacing a WTE facility instead of refurbishing it include the ability to implement new air pollution control technologies and/or carbon capture systems and the opportunity to evaluate new WTE facility locations to address any of the local siting concerns.
• In the U.S., approximately 50 percent of MSW was landfilled in 2018. A common reason for landfilling residual waste instead of processing it for energy recovery and volume reduction in a WTE facility is the higher associated costs. However, the SWANA report’s analysis suggests that the WTE option can be economically competitive with landfill disposal when considered over a 50-year time frame, with the facility being refurbished after its initial service life of 25 years.

This report provides compelling evidence and practical insights for jurisdictions managing aging waste-to-energy infrastructures. Decision-makers should weigh refurbishing for midlife facility extension against the benefits of replacement, including readiness for evolving environmental regulations and technologies.

The author is the director of Applied Research at the Solid Waste Association of North America. He can be contacted at jobrien@swana.org.