Danielson Holding Corporation, through its subsidiary Covanta Energy
Corporation has retained contracts from Hillsborough County, Florida to construct, operate and maintain an additional $106
million Solid Waste Energy Recovery Facility. The facility is expected to be completed 28 months after regulatory permits
are obtained for the project. The contract is for twenty years and includes an amendment the company’s original 20-year
contract.
The new contract will add a fourth boiler to the facility, which
has been operational since 1987, provided by. The new boiler will increase waste-to-energy capacity an extra 190,000 tons
of solid waste per year. Currently, the three boiler units, based on technology from Martin GmbH, process 372,000 tons per
year. The waste is first converted to steam and then to electricity, which is then sold to Tampa Electric Company.
Adding a twist to the contract is a non-ferrous metal recovery
system that Covanta is to design, build and operate. That recovery system is able to extract non-ferrous metals from the solid
waste. Covanta reports that it will market the non-ferrous metals and once it recovers the investment will share the resulting
revenue with the County.
The trend for landfill energy companies to offer revenue sharing
to counties is expected to continue as newer technology is able to more economically extract the valuable minerals, chemicals,
and metals that are associated with new millennium waste.
