SCS Engineers Supports Construction of WTE Plant in Maine

SCS Engineers, hired as the independent engineer and construction monitor by Fiberight LLC, has submitted the due diligence report supporting the construction of an advanced materials recovery and processing facility (MRF) in Hampden, Maine. SCS conducted the technical, financial and contract due diligence to support the bond issuance for the public-private partnership. The project financing included a $45 million Finance Authority of Maine (FAME) tax-exempt bond issuance underwritten by Jefferies LLC and $25 million in private equity. 

The facility will serve 83 municipalities and public entities represented by the Municipal Review Committee, a nonprofit organization that currently manages the waste disposal activities in both Eastern and Northern Maine. The facility is planning to start accepting waste from its municipal customers in the second quarter of 2018.

Fiberight and its vendors are providing the Hampden facility with advanced technologies that have been proven at its demonstration facility in Lawrenceville, Va., and at many automated MRFs in the U.S. and in Europe. The end product is cleaner and provides more diverse types of materials that can then be reused to create new products.

“We want to encourage sustainable materials management because it reduces our dependence on landfilling and other disposal options and this facility does that,” said Bob Gardner, senior vice president of SCS Engineers in a statement. “The technologies at the Hampden facility will help citizens, local municipalities and private waste haulers to offset the impact of China’s ban on their recycling programs by processing more municipal solid waste into high-value commodities.”  

The Hampden facility features an advanced MRF with a high degree of separation, recovery and monetization of commodity products, and then employs additional processes for generating clean cellulose, engineered fuels and biogas from traditionally non-recyclable materials. Hired for the firm’s technical expertise and experience planning large municipal solid waste and biogas programs and facilities, SCS provided an in-depth examination and analysis of the technologies, program sustainability and potential economic impacts of the facility.