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Baltimore City Compost Facility
BRESCO
Harford County RRF
Montgomery County RRF
Baltimore RESCO


The Baltimore Refuse Energy Systems Company (BRESCO), has been providing disposal of up to 2,250 tons per day of municipal solid waste from Baltimore City, Baltimore County and other areas in Maryland since 1985. Trash is delivered into an enclosed receiving pit where a clamshell crane is used to pick up three to four tons of waste at a time and feed the waste into one of three processing units. Each unit is made up of a furnace,

          a boiler and an air pollution control system. The reciprocating motion of the grates inside the furnace

moves the waste through the unit, insuring complete combustion. The primary combustion air is drawn from the refuse pit area, sustaining a

negative pressure in the unit. The negative pressure prevents garbage odors and dust from escaping into the environment. Surrounding the grate systems are large

utility-type boilers, which recover and "recycle" thermal energy released during the combustion of the waste. This recycled energy is recovered in the form of high-pressure steam. At full capacity, the plant can generate in excess of 500,000 pounds of steam per hour. Part of the steam is used to make electricity and the rest is used for district heating and cooling. BRESCO is capable of supplying up to 300,000 pounds of steam per hour to Trigen, which distributes the steam to buildings in downtown Baltimore. BRESCO can also produce up to 60,000 kilowatts per hour for sale to BGE. The BRESCO waste-to-energy facility successfully reduces the volume of incoming waste by approximately 90%. BRESCO also recovers ferrous and non-ferrous metals from the ash residue. These metals are shipped off-site to be recycled. The ash residue is approximately 28%, by weight, of the incoming waste. The ash is being used by the City of Baltimore for daily cover at its Quarantine Road landfill.

To learn more about the BRESCO Waste-to-Energy Facility, please contact the Authority at 410.333.2730 or authority@nmwda.org


Operations Overview:

Year Total Refused Processed Ferrous Metals Extracted Total Steam Generated Total Electricity Produced (MWH)
1985 671,597 5,656 n/a 291,991
1986 719,954 12,480 n/a 352,257
1987 723,095 9,203 n/a 303,318
1988 732,183 12,223 n/a 313,869
1989 709,731 10,202 n/a 320,749
1990 709,658 12,397 n/a 348,666
1991 718,068 17,017 4,561,374 315,751
1992 723,623 19,508 4,573,809 303,638
1993 697,252 19,058 4,448,197 286,343
1994 737,495 22,153 4,484,985 334,766
1995 746,017 24,583 4,578,211 334,391
1996 754,068 26,665 4,537,004 334,391
1997 694,514 13,493 4,537,004 294,641
1998 713,052 17,513 4,500,112 306,128
1999 716,274 18,296 4,414,983 284,023
2000 666,770 11,551 4,175,843 302,964
2001 736,192 10,906 4,406,765 296,230
2002 668,669 10,127 4,260,720 260,481
2003 658,002 7,385 4,914,888 270,658
2004 635,655 12,923 4,158,968 279,055
Totals 14,131,869 293,339 62,552,863 6,088,928








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