Plasco Prepares to Cross the Finish Line in Contract Negotiations with Ottawa

After nine months of negotiation with the city of Ottawa, it looks like Plasco Energy Group is “very close” to signing its first commercial deal.

Courtesy: Plasco Energy Group

The local company had reached an initial agreement in December to build and operate a facility that would convert 300 tons of post-recycled MSW per day using a plasma gasification system.  Plasma gasification heats the waste to temperatures above 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit to convert it to a syngas that can be used to generate electricity or steam.

The city has agreed to a 20-year deal that that would cost $9.1 million annually to send 300 tons of trash per day to the facility. While this is still a hefty price tag for residents, it is actually less than they are paying now to dump waste in the nearby Trail Road landfill. The city currently pays a $96 tip fee to landfill owners. The $9.1 million the city will pay annually to Plasco includes an $83.25 tip fee once the facility is up and running.  

Perhaps more importantly, the deal with Plasco will extend the life of the Trail Road landfill. Currently on pace to reach maximum capacity in 2042, the Plasco deal means the city would be able to continue dumping trash until 2070. The city estimates the cost of a new landfill to be close to $250 million.

A by-product of plasma gasification is slag, a non-toxic solid that looks like a shiny black rock. Plasco hopes to sell that slag as an aggregate for concrete or asphalt. Under the current deal with Ottawa, Plasco’s Trail Road facility would produce roughly 11,600 tons of slag each year. The city will receive the material at no cost and is hoping to use it to build a ramp to the landfill and facility. Slag is still untested as an aggregate for roadways since the current demonstration model does not run on a consistent enough basis to create large enough quantities of slag.

City council members have the distinct advantage of already seeing a commercial-scale demonstration of Plasco’s plasma gasification technology in its own backyard. The 100 tpd demonstration facility was built at the Trail Road landfill site in late 2010 and has been running intermittently ever since. The site passed its environmental screening test and received a Certificate of Approval (Air & Waste) on Oct. 24, 2011. Although some city council members have voiced fears that the facility had not been running on a continuous basis for a full year, the large size of the demonstration facility should ease concerns of scaling the technology for a larger facility.

Better BTU Take: Plasco Energy has received an unparalleled amount of financial support from private investors like George Soros (see our previous blog post Finding Funding: Plasco’s Biggest Supporter) and we’re glad to see something come of it. Plasma gasification is viewed as one of the cleanest forms of gasification but it’s the cost that is going to keep it from becoming a widespread solution on American soil. This technology can only work where tip fees are extremely high, as they are in Ottawa. That leaves New York and California as the best bets for a project in the states.

Interestingly enough, Plasco’s plan to build a facility in Salinas Valley, California has recently hit the skids. CalRecycle, the agency charged with overseeing California’s recycling and solid waste reduction notified Plasco on Aug. 23^rd that its process didn’t appear to meet the state’s definition of gasification, preventing it’s electricity from receiving coveted ‘renewable energy’ status it needs to sell to utilities. The block comes almost two years after CalRecycle originally approved Plasco’s process and reports are that this is a purely political issue. Still, it hurts Plasco, who has already invested $1 million in the project.

Although there is no link between the Salinas Valley and Ottawa projects, it is worth noting that Plasco is still ironing out a deal to sell its energy to Ontario Power Authority. Should this become an issue at any point, there will be definite parallels between this project and the California one. Just goes to show you that nothing is certain ‘til the ink is dry and the facility is built and operating!

Further Reading:

Plasco Contract 'Very Close' to Completion – By Jon Willing, Ottawa Sun (Sept. 14, 2012)

Finding Funding: Plasco's Biggest Supporter – Better BTU Technology Blog (Dec. 21, 2011)

Plasco May Give Up California Dreamin' – By Joanne Chianello, Ottawa Citizen (Sept. 19, 2012)

Plasco Trail Road - 2011 Annual Report – Plasco Energy Group

City Hopes Plasco Slag is Hot Commodity – By Jon Willing, Ottawa Sun (Dec. 8, 2011)