“Demonstration and Validation of a Deployable Battalion-Scale Waste to Energy System” by Matthew Young (ESTCP Project WP18-5055)

This project supported ESTCP’s efforts to reduce the impact of waste management on Department of Defense’s (DoD) contingency base operations, both abroad and at home. Current waste management practices have several drawbacks. Open-pit burning is a common practice, but it damages the environment and impacts soldier health and safety. Relying upon local waste management infrastructure also poses security and reliability concerns. Trashology’s Battalion-Scale Waste-to-Energy Conversion (BWEC) system solves these problems by allowing solid waste to be processed directly on-site, which eliminates the need for landfilling and open-pit burning while producing electricity and heat for use on-site. In addition to waste reduction, each system significantly reduces fuel logistics, saving an estimated 144 gallons of fuel per day per system. The core objective of this program was to demonstrate and validate that the BWEC system is capable of converting highly variable contingent base solid waste into electricity and heat in an efficient, reliable, transportable, and rapidly deployable configuration. This presentation introduced the BWEC system and described the demonstration effort that will validate the BWEC system’s performance on simulated contingency base operations.
 

“Expeditionary Solid Waste Disposal and Energy Recovery” by Neil Pearce (ESTCP Project WP18-5149)

Solid waste disposal at forward operations has consisted of open pit burning and the use of commercial incinerators. The development of a new purpose-designed and built system, the Expeditionary Solid Waste Disposal System (ESWDS), provides a safe and reliable solution for solid waste disposal at expeditionary bases. But what about waste to energy? Given the operational energy challenges associated with forward operations, can waste become a source of energy? DoD has been working on this for decades but what obstacles remain in making energy from waste a reality in expeditionary settings? Eco Waste Solutions DWECX-TEEPS provides an alternative that both processes waste and generates energy and hot water as a by-product. The DWECX disposes of up to 1000 lbs. (0.5 tons) per day of typical solid non-hazardous military base waste, reducing the volume by over 95%, and producing benign residues and emissions. The TEEPS system captures waste heat from the waste convertor exhaust through a heat exchanger and circulate it to the engine/generator. A second heat exchanger condenses the working fluid using cooling water which can be used for hot water or space heating, or rejected through an air cooler. The presentation discussed preliminary system demonstration results and discuss the effect on logistical footprint, disposal efficiency, energy generation, waste processing and resulting air emissions from the addition of an energy recovery device.

Mr. Matthew Young is the President and CEO of Trashology, located in Concord, MA. He has served as the principal investigator on several research grants through the DoD, including with the U.S. Army, the Office of the Secretary of Defense, U.S. Army Construction Engineering Research Laboratory, and the U.S. Navy, all of which have focused on the development of innovative waste management technologies for use in the contingency operations. Under his leadership, Trashology has been developing a containerized, transportable solid waste-to-energy system called the BWEC. The BWEC system is capable of dramatically reducing the operational risk and cost of waste management on contingency base operations. In the future, the BWEC system will be deployed commercially to help reduce the demand for landfilling both domestically and abroad. Mr. Young holds two U.S. patents for Trashology’s downdraft gasification reactor design. He earned a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute. 

Mr. Neil Pearce has been with Eco Waste Solutions for more than five years primarily in new product development, design and production. He has been involved with numerous waste to energy projects, including an ongoing ESTCP project titled “Deployable Waste to Energy Convertor for Expeditionary Contingency Bases with Thermal Energy to Electrical Power System.” Mr. Pearce was a key player in the development of two previous prototypes that succeeded the ESTCP development work. The first prototype, called the Deployable Waste Energy Convertor – Heat Energy Recovery System (DWEC-HERS), is a system that primarily focuses on hot water recovery and is capable of processing all targeted waste streams. The second prototype, referred to as the Expeditionary Solid Waste Disposal System (ESWDS), is a product procured and designed specifically for the Product Manager Force Sustainment Systems (PM FSS). For his work, Mr. Pearce received the Society of American Military Engineer’s Award for "Outstanding Contributions by Young Civilian Member” in 2020. He earned a bachelor’s degree in engineering from the University of Guelph.