Baltimore City Compost Facility
Harford County RRF
Montgomery County RRF

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 alternate 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


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