Waste Conversion

Waste Conversion, turning refuse in to electricity!

Susquehanna Anthracite is committed to clean energy and the preservation of the beautiful country we live in. Through tireless efforts we are ensuring a cleaner and brighter environment, complete with adequate fuel to meet our growing power needs for future generations to come.

100% of the product Susquehanna Anthracite removes from the ground is utilized at our fully integrated multi-step operation. Not only is the Anthracite Coal we remove from the ground cleaner burning and more reliable than even wood, but our refuse is anything but a waste product! Approximately 50% of the Anthracite removed from the ground has too much rock in it to fit our extremely high standards to be considered premium coal product we sell to our consumers.

The remaining product, referred to as refuse or culm, is both utilized by Susquehanna Anthracite and burned at our sister company, Mount Carmel Cogeneration Power Plant, as well as sold as fuel to other Cogeneration Power Plants throughout the Northeast section of the United States. The quality of the product mined by Susquehanna Anthracite is so high in its BTU content that these plants are able to burn this refuse as a fuel source, creating electrical power and providing that to the PJM power grid which powers much of the Northeastern US. This means that the power you use every day at work and at home to turn on your lights, your computers or your televisions is, in part, coal provided electricity!

Not only is Susquehanna Anthracite selling the refuse product from its current mining operations to create electricity, we are also cleaning up coal refuse piles that have long doted the landscape in Northeastern Pennsylvania and beyond. Much of this material has been piled and discarded for more than 100 years, we have found new life and purpose for this refuse, turning it in to one of the most utilized and relatively underappreciated (until you don’t have it) resources, electrical power! If you are a resident of Northeastern Pennsylvania you can largely thank Susquehanna Anthracite for the diminishing coal piles in your region. Once this product is used to create electricity, Susquehanna Anthracite has taken yet another step…to restore these properties to the beautiful, useful spaces they were always intended to be. The next time you’re watching a soccer game on a beautiful new field you can wonder to yourself, was this site a reclaimed mining operation too?