Honolulu Mayor Dedicates Third Trash-to-Power Boiler

Honolulu Mayor Peter Carlisle Tuesday dedicated the third and final boiler of a $302 million project designed to help the city to reduce its dependence on fossil fuels by creating energy from trash.

The expansion at the Honolulu Program of Waste to Energy Recovery, or H-POWER, which broke ground on Dec. 21, 2009, added another boiler capable of burning 300,000 tons of mass per year, according to a release.

The project included a state-of-the-art pollution control system that consists of a scrubber, baghouse, and a nitric oxide and nitrogen dioxide emission system.

“By reducing our dependence on fossil fuels and creating energy from trash, H-POWER benefits the city environmentally and financially,” Carlisle said in a statement. “With the third boiler, we can now divert even more opala from the landfill and continue to emphasize more recycling.”

Opala is the Hawaiian word for trash.

The expansion project will create 25 new full-time positions. H-POWER will now be able to combust 900,000 tons of Honolulu’s non-recyclable household trash annually, contribute 8% of Oahu’s power using a renewable source, and power 65,000 Oahu homes.

H-POWER also recovers approximately 20,000 tons of steel and aluminum alloy metal for recycling each year.

The city recently completed a new power-purchase agreement with the Hawaiian Electric Co., which is estimated to bring in $85 million per year.

Since H-POWER went into service in May 1990, the facility operated by Covanta Honolulu has processed more than 13 million tons of waste and offset 15 million barrels of imported oil, while recovering more than 450,000 tons of metals, according to the release.

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