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A cement plant in Utah drew some national attention today because of its unusual method of producing energy. It is burning diapers! That's right, diapers! And another company actually pays to get rid of them.
OK, I know what you're thinking. Dirty diapers going up in smoke. Eeewwww! Well, it's not quite like that. But it is a good example of turning somebody's waste into something useful.
A modern cement plant is on a much bigger scale, but even ancient Romans knew you can heat up limestone to make cement. Those Romans never imagined using Little Mermaid Huggies for fuel. That's what helps the Devils' Slide Cement plant save nearly a million dollars a year.
Cement Plant Manager Keith Krugh says, "Of our total operating cost, fuel cost is roughly one-third."
The traditional fuel is coal. Here they add to the fuel-mix chunks of rubber tires and chopped up waste plastic. Much of the waste is from Kimberly-Clark's Huggies factory, leftover chunks of disposable diapers.
They dump the waste into burners that preheat limestone to about 2000 degrees. It reduces coal consumption by 30 percent. Krugh says, "We also are conserving a natural resource, and we're also keeping a lot of material out of landfills that would normally go there."
In the rotary kiln, the temperatures get even hotter, an incredible 3000 degrees, chemically transforming the limestone mix into Portland cement.
Waste-as-fuel drew praise at a meeting this week of a national business group exploring green, sustainable business practices. Andrew Mangan, with the U.S. Business Council for Sustainable Development, asks, "How do we make the most out of what we've got and move from a waste oriented society to a 100 percent product society?" The group toured Devils Slide, where a prime ingredient is another company's waste. Krugh says, "[It] has good heat value and works well in our process."
When asked if they burn poopy diapers, the company replies, "They're all pre-consumer."
Burning of tires and plastics has often been controversial around the country because of air quality issues. The company claims the waste they burn is often less polluting than coal, and they're not permitted to burn any form of hazardous waste.
E-mail: hollenhorst@ksl.com
