Resource recovery facilities - 4. adapting a proven technology: Saugus, Ma

The article is the fourth in a five-part series on the subject. It discusses the Refuse Energy Systems Company (RESCO) mass-burning waterwall plant in Saugust Ma. The facility is currently processing 1,150 tons per day (averaged over seven days per week) of municipal solid waste from 18 municipalities, including 13 contract communities, two refuse collection districts of Boston and one New Hampshire and two Maine towns. The plant's design operating capacity is 1,200 TPD and maximum capacity is 1,500 TPD. The RESCO plant is an American adaptation of a proven European technology for the ''mass burning'' of solid waste. The process, developed by von Roll, Ltd., of Zurich, Switzerland, has been used in two Wheelabrator/von Roll waterwall combustion units, producing up to 370,000 lb. per hr. of superheated steam that is piped to a General Electric turbine manufacturing facility.