Red Wing Generating Station

Location: Red Wing, Minn., on the Mississippi River

Plant Description: Red Wing is a two-unit generating plant that burns processed municipal solid waste, called refuse-derived fuel (RDF).

Power Production Capability: (in-service dates) 24 MW (1949): Unit 1 – 12 MW and Unit 2 – 12 MW

Fuel Sources: Originally built as a coal-fired generating plant, Red Wing was converted to burn RDF in 1987. RDF is a fluffy, burnable fuel produced at a resource recovery facility in Newport, Minn. Although the Red Wing Steam Plant uses an alternate fuel, it produces electricity the same as conventional plants—a source of heat turns water to steam, which drives a turbine-generator.

Red Wing proves that a combination of ingenuity and technical advances can offer innovative solutions for today’s waste disposal problem. Built in the 1940s as a coal-fired generating facility, Red Wing’s two units were converted in 1986 to burn RDF. The processed municipal solid waste provides a low-cost fuel alternative to generate electricity and reduces the amount of material going to landfills.

The RDF burned at the Red Wing Steam Plant is produced at a resource recovery facilities in Newport, Minn., owned by a firm called Resource Recovery Technologies. These facilities collect and process approximately 790,000 tons municipal solid waste each year from several Minnesota counties. Garbage trucks dump solid waste on the tipping floor at the facilities. Front-end loader operators then inspect trash and push it on the floor to a feed conveyor. The RDF processing facility removes recyclable materials and non-combustible items from the waste, then chops and shreds it into a uniformly sized fluffy product for delivery to Red Wing, or its sister RDF combustion steam plant—Wilmarth in Mankato, Minn.

RDF is hauled by truck to a receiving facility at the Red Wing Steam Plant, where it is conveyed to the two boilers inside the plant. The Red Wing Steam Plant is located amidst the scenic Mississippi River bluffs of southeastern Minnesota, just below Barn Bluff, a popular hiking area. The plant also is the site of the City of Red Wing’s barge unloading activities.

The plant employs a combination duct scrubber with a baghouse to effectively meet emissions requirements from burning refuse-derived fuel. The scrubber treats flue gas with a water spray and dry lime, while the baghouse traps particulate by forcing gas streams through large filter bags.