First Industrial-scale Municipal Solid Waste to Biofuel Facility Opens

[Bill USA]

http://cleantechnica.com/2014/06/09/first-industrial-scale-municipal-solid-waste-biofuel/

The first industrial-scale municipal solid waste to biofuel facility opened in Edmonton on June 4, 2014. Enerkem’s waste-to-biofuels and chemicals facility will convert 100,000 tonnes of sorted municipal waste per year into biofuels and chemicals. Once the facility is up to full capacity in 2016, the city will be able to divert 90% of its residential waste from landfills.

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Edmonton will produce 38 million litres of clean fuels and biochemicals from waste that used to end up in landfills, which will initially be used to produce methanol. The facility will eventually produce enough ethanol to fill the tanks of 400,000 cars with a 5% (E5) blend.

“We believe that this game-changing facility, built in partnership with the City of Edmonton, can become a model for many communities around the world that are looking for a sustainable way to manage waste,” said Vincent Chornet, President and CEO of Enerkem.

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Chornet said, “We break down the waste using heat and convert it into a gas that is as clean as natural gas. Then we convert the gas to liquid methanol — and all that happens in three minutes.”
(more)

[KT2000]

1. anyone here have a biomass plant

in their community? If so - how is it going?
We have one that burns "wood waste" from the forest to generate electricity for sale. Of course the concept of wood waste is debatable as it supplies nutrients for the trees. I expect logging of "undesirable trees" in the future when the easier access wood is depleted. But it's a done deal now.

[Nihil]

4. We have a CHP plant that burns genuine wood waste ...

... not from forests but from the mixed wood collected at the dump - sorry, "Recycling Centre" - which
is mostly broken fences, packaging, broken furniture with very little "unprocessed plant wood" (for
want of a better term).

There was a fuss about it during the planning phase but I actually chimed in to defend it as
the prime objection (i.e., other than simple NIMBY) were the traffic changes from the lorries bringing
wood from the dump to the plant. The wood was previously being trucked to a CHP plant in a different
county. (Previous to that, it was shoved in a land-fill ...)

I pointed out that the route from the dump to the plant was less than a mile, most of which was through
a light industry estate and not past any schools, hospitals, old folk's homes or anything. The first part
of that route was along the same roads as currently used for the remote CHP destination and, by cutting
the road miles down, not only was the safety aspect improved by the new plant but it saved on fuel costs
and pollution from traffic. (The pollution risk due to the plant itself had been adequately covered already.)

We are keeping an eye on the fuel stream for the plant - precisely to avoid it being used as an excuse
for felling trees - but, so far, it is meeting all the goals.

[KT2000]

5. Thanks - this is good to hear

We too will be watching the fuel stream.

[FogerRox]

2. Interesting. Havent we been waiting for this sort of thing for like 30 years?

Wind turbines are just now becoming a mature technology, cost to generate is 3.3 to 6.5 cents per Kwh, solar is a little behind wind cost to generate wise. Geo thermal is just starting to expand, solar thermal too. Soon someone will build a closed loop pumped hydro storage plant probably in an old mine.

Trash to fuel, cool. KnR

[Bill USA]

3. i think they are ahead of us in this in Europe. Not very "sexy" but practical. Less going into

landfills too. Win-win, as they say.