Welcome
OVERVIEW
Curtis Bay Energy is committed to safely converting Special Medical Waste to energy, while protecting the health and welfare of our customers, our staff, our community and the environment. Our associates are trained to provide superior customer service, flexible scheduling, environmental education and expert regulatory support. Our team is focused, highly motivated and has a service record of success. Curtis Bay Energy listens to your Special Medical Waste requirements and develops custom solutions that meet your specific needs.
Curtis Bay Energy manages the country’s largest waste-to-energy facility permitted for dedicated commercial medical waste. The facility was conceived, designed and built in cooperation with members of the Maryland Hospital Association to provide a regional solution for medical waste management. The facility receives Special Medical Waste from hospitals, medical schools, laboratories, clinics and physician offices in the greater Baltimore metropolitan area and throughout the mid-Atlantic region. Unlike other facilities in the region, Curtis Bay Energy is directly capable of treating all types of Special Medical Waste, with the capacity to handle large quantities of general wastes that may be commingled with infectious materials from health care settings in which infectious materials are not segregated for disposal. The facility began commercial operation in 1991 and currently operates 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, in order to provide continuous service to its customers.
Curtis Bay Energy receives Special Medical Waste in both reusable containers (carts, tubs and buckets with lids) and disposable shipping containers (corrugated cardboard boxes, plastic and fiber disposable drums and disposable tubs). Roll-off containers specifically designed for Special Medical Waste will soon be accepted. The waste received in reusable shipping containers is emptied into the waste-to-energy hoppers by tipping the shipping containers. These containers are then disinfected and washed before they are returned to customers. Reusable shipping containers come in a variety of sizes from 10 gallons to 211 gallons. Special Medical Waste received in disposable shipping containers is fed directly into the waste-to-energy charging hoppers without removing the primary (inner) containers from the shipping containers.
Curtis Bay Energy uses modern, highly controlled combustion technology to safely and efficiently thermally oxidize all types of Special Medical Waste. The waste-to-energy infrastructure consists of two Consumat units each permitted to burn 85 tons per day. The air permit allows 150 tons of waste to be processed per day. The primary combustion chamber typically operates at 1650 F with an average six-hour resonance time, and the waste is reduced to less than (25%) twenty five percent of its original weight. The resulting ash is ejected from the machine into a water bath and conveyed to an ash holding area. The ash is taken via truck to a landfill for disposal.
The gas emission stream is treated with an acid gas sorbent material to react with developed hydrochloric acid. Powdered activated carbon is also added to the gas stream to proactively remove mercury inadvertently placed in the waste stream. The treated gas flows through a fabric filter baghouse that removes the particulate matter, including the sorbent and carbon materials. The fabric of the bags manufactured by W. L. Gore & Associates is called Remedia, and it contains a catalytic material that destroys the dioxins and furans. Curtis Bay Energy is the first facility in the country to install and maintain this enhanced technology, which provides improved operating performance that greatly exceeds the minimum environmental requirements. When evaluating all of the currently acceptable medical waste technologies, we believe that with careful facility operations management, thermal oxidizing waste-to-energy by far provides the lowest environmental impact. Curtis Bay Energy is financially committed to continued research and development that will lead to further environmental enhancements.
Treatment of medical waste by thermal oxidation destroys infectious organisms and reduces the solid waste volume by more than (95%) ninety five percent. The reduction of the material and its transport greatly reduces the impact on the environment from truck exhaust in that there are fewer trips made to remove the same amount of material, as opposed to alternative autoclave technology. Thermal oxidation produces residual materials in solid, liquid and gaseous forms. The residual end product in the solid form is an unrecognizable fine ash and spent treatment material from the air pollution control system. This solid residue is non-hazardous and is landfilled.
Liquid residue from the operation is limited to waste water from sanitary facilities, reusable waste container washing systems and miscellaneous sources such as boiler and water softener blow down. The facility has no sanitary sewer discharge, so these non-hazardous wastewaters are periodically shipped off-site for treatment at a municipal wastewater treatment plant operated by the City of Baltimore.
Airborne residues from the operation consist of cleaned combustion gases from the thermal oxidation process that leave via the main stack. These gases contain primarily nitrogen and free oxygen from excess combustion air, and carbon dioxide and water, which are products of combustion. While these are all normal constituents of air, the percentages of carbon dioxide and water are higher in combustion gases. In addition, minute quantities of air pollutants, the concentrations of which are within permitted limits by a wide margin, are emitted from the stack. These pollutants include: carbon monoxide, particulate matter, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and near zero organics such as dioxins and furans. As a result of the facility’s advanced thermal oxidation and combustion gas cleaning systems, its stack emissions per ton of waste thermally oxidized are among the lowest of any solid waste combustion facility in the world.
To ensure proper operation of the facility air pollution control systems and to provide a record of performance, emissions from the stack are closely monitored. Monitoring includes both continuous self-monitoring with permanently installed Continuous Emissions Monitoring System (CEMS) instrumentation as well as periodic independent monitoring tests conducted by qualified independent parties. In addition, the facility’s continuous self-monitoring system is intermittently audited on-line by the regulatory authorities. Emissions of the following substances are continuously self-monitored at the facility: oxygen, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, hydrogen chloride and sulfur dioxide.
Oxygen, carbon dioxide, hydrogen chloride and sulfur dioxide are measured with the CEMS equipment both pre and post treatment by the air pollution control system. Stack gas opacity (a surrogate measure of particulate emissions) is also monitored continuously. The CEMS instrumentation takes a continuous sample of the gas stream at regular intervals and records the “real-time” data in one minute averages which are then combined into one hour averages and logged into a data base. The CEMS equipment at the facility is the most comprehensive system of its type and includes the only continuous hydrogen chloride monitor operating on any medical waste-to-energy facility in the country.
The CEMS instruments are carefully maintained to ensure accuracy and reliability. In accordance with the facility’s CEMS Quality Assurance Plan, the instruments are checked and maintained daily, monthly, quarterly and annually. Under the facility’s permit to operate, if the CEMS instruments were to breakdown and go off-line, it can be down for (10%) ten percent of the time. Strict attention to the maintenance of these instrument systems at the facility has resulted in an average CEMS instrument downtime of less than (5%) five percent.
Curtis Bay Energy possesses and manages the required permits for solid waste, air emissions, storm water and wastewater. The facility is inspected regularly by the respective agencies for compliance with the federal and state regulations and the issued permits. The facility is regulated by the State of Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) and the code of Maryland Regulations (COMAR). The permit to operate, issued by the MDE Air and Radiation Management Administration (ARMA), allows the facility to process up to 150 tons of Special Medical Waste (SMW) waste per day. Baltimore City zoning regulations allow Curtis Bay Energy to process waste at the facility that has been generated within a 250-mile radius of the limits of the City of Baltimore.
Curtis Bay Energy transports materials based on your specific requirements. The facility has a large fleet of permitted trailers in varying sizes to transport medical waste in different types of packaging. The trucks and trailers are compliant with all existing U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) and State of Maryland regulations. Curtis Bay Energy is inspected periodically by the DOT and annually by the state for compliance and record keeping.
Curtis Bay Energy provides this information as a resource for customers regarding regulatory requirements of packaging, shipping and transportation of medical waste to our facility. This document is by no means an exhaustive authority on all of the federal and state regulations pertaining to medical waste. Neither is it an official document of nor is it endorsed by any regulatory agency. Rather, it is merely a guide and as such it is incumbent upon each customer to know and follow the pertinent federal and state regulations as written. Customers are bound by their respective contracts to adhere to all of these regulations. Failure to do so may put the customer at risk of being cited for violations and liable for the associated penalties.
