Explained: Why Gov't is dropping $131m on Tynes Bay

The clunking grind of the old equipment that has served Tynes Bay for 17 years is on its way out.

In its place is state-of-the-art technology built in factories in the U.S. and Europe.

The renovation work to upgrade the facility is already well underway and with $27 million allocated to the project this year, there is plenty more in the pipeline.

Refuse

To see Tynes Bay as simply a smelly place that burns trash does not begin to do justice to the complex processes at work and the vital role it plays in disposing of the island’s waste.

Every day hundreds of truckloads of trash are poured into a refuse bunker at the entrance to the North Shore complex.

The waste is then picked up by a massive metal claw and dropped into one of two chutes, either stream one or stream two.

Each stream does an identical job and consists of an incinerator where the trash is burnt.

It is also made up of a boiler that uses the heat from the incinerator to produce steam to drive a steam turbine that powers a generator to produce electricity and an Electro-static Precipitator (ESP), which cleans the exhaust gases.

The first phase of the upgrade saw the old stream two combustion, furnace and boiler sections ripped out and replaced. The cost of refurbishing each incinerator stream is

$8 million and for the ESPs it is $3.8 million.

The process began last September and was completed just before Christmas.

Now both streams are up and running again. But while stream two was out of action, the extra trash that could not be dealt with at Tynes Bay was baled up into two-tonne bales, wrapped in several layers of polythene and taken to Morgan’s Point to be stored. The 7,000 bales are being returned to Tynes Bay at a rate of 70 each day.

The baling process costs $1.5 million, while returning them is a further $700,000.

The work on stream one, which will be taken out and replaced, is due to begin this September.

It means Tynes Bay will be running on one stream and the baling process will begin again.

There are plans for a third stream but this has been deferred due to the economic climate until after the refurbishment work has been completed.

Desperate

George Peck, project manager, said: “A third stream would allow us to better maintain the other two streams.

 “Two streams are required full-time to process the total waste generated and the third stream will provide the necessary redundancy to enable necessary maintenance to be carried out without any loss of capacity or the need to bale.

“A lot of the equipment in Tynes Bay has not been changed for 17 years, when it was first opened, so the renovation work is very important.

“We have had a number of break-downs over the last few years and the plant is in desperate need of refurbishment.”

This year will also see the completion of the new ash processing plant, while the first payment of $2.7 million will be put down on a new steam turbine and generator that will double the electrical output of the plant.

By increasing the output from 3.6 megawatts to 7.5 megawatts, the turbine will allow Government to make substantial cost savings on electricity to power the nearby Reverse Osmosis Plant and increase the revenue from the sale of excess power to BELCO by $2.3 million.

The turbine is expected to pay for itself in eight-and-a-half years and should be in place within two years.

The new ash plant, made in the U.S., should be fully functional next month.

It sorts and processes the ash from the incineration process, removing metals and unburned materials before the ash is combined with cement and water to make concrete blocks. These are made up at the airport reclamation facility and used in shore protection.

The old ash processing plant will be decommissioned, while the final part of this year’s agenda will upgrade the process water supply to Tynes Bay.

Combustion

Water from nearby catchment tanks and the sea is used to cool the various machinery used in the combustion and electricity generation processes.

This April work will begin on a new $1.5 million water treatment plant while $6 million will be spent on upgrading the seawater cooling plant.

The old water treatment plant – which is in the heart of the facility – will be taken out and replaced, while the new pumps in the sea water-cooling plant will increase the capacity and flow of water through the turbine.

Mr. Peck said: “There is a lot going on at Tynes Bay at the moment.

“It’s one stream down, one to go. We are on schedule and should have two refurbished streams up and running in the new year.