AUGUST 11, 2013—One man’s trash is another man’s treasure or, in this case, power. Navy shipbuilder Newport News Shipbuilding (NNS), Newport News, VA, a division of Huntington Ingalls Industries, recently partnered with the City of Hampton, VA, to convert its shipyard trash into steam power. Under the partnership, the shipyard’s solid waste is incinerated at Hampton’s steam plant facility and converted to steam through a process known as “waste-to-energy.” The energy is then used to power NASA Langley Research Center (NASA LaRC) facilities, Hampton, VA.
NNS hopes to significantly reduce the amount of trash it sends to the local landfill. “Just last year NNS sent more than 10,000 tons of non-recyclable waste to the local landfill,” said Frank “Hogie” Thorn, NNS’ environmental engineering manager.
The steam plant has been converting local trash into energy for 33years. With partnerships with the cities of Hampton and Poquoson, alllocal federal agencies, and commercial groups like NNS, Hampton’s steamplant burns up to 240 tons of trash per day.
“Back in the 1970s NASA needed a more efficient and practical way toget power for its buildings and wind tunnels, and during this time’waste-to-burn’ energy was coming into its own,” said /NASASteam Plant Manager John MacDonald. “So NASA LaRC, as a forerunner inscience, got involved and has been doing it ever since. The energyproduced by steam helps with heating and air conditioning of NASAbuildings and cooking in NASA’s commissary. The biggest use of theenergy is for the air ejectors in NASA’s wind tunnels to continue theagency’s research.”
The partnership between the city of Hampton, NASA LaRC and NNS is justone project led by GreeNN, NNS’ program dedicated to pursingenvironmental improvements throughout the shipyard. The project is thelatest in the group’s Go Green Challenge, a long-term plan forenvironmental responsibility at NNS.
