A Tale of Two Cities Part II – Educational Institutions

In January, we looked at renewable energy projects in two different towns, examining how community support (or lack thereof) contributed to the success or failure of each. (See: A Tale of Two Cities). Today, we examine a project similar in nature to the canceled project at the University of Montana but that was able to make it over the finish line.

Colby College Biomass Facility; Source: Colby College.

Colby College is a private liberal arts school in Waterville, Maine. The institution took a large step towards its goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2015 when it went on line with its new biomass plant in January. Using approximately 22,000 tons of local wood per year, the facility produces steam to make heat and electricity. By replacing close to 1 million gallons of heating fuel each year, the biomass plant is expected to save the college up to $250,000 each month in the winter.

The college chose a gasification system by Chiptec Wood Energy Systems, out of Vermont. Chiptec has been in business for over 90 years, focusing exclusively on biomass waste-to-energy systems since 1986. From the company website, it looks to us like Chiptec uses a partial oxidation technology. Colby is the fourth institution of higher learning to use Chiptec technology for a biomass plant.

Feedstock is supplied by Cousineau Forest Products, bringing wood chips, bark and treetops from a radius of 50 miles to the campus and storing excess in an underground storage bin. The project was made possible by a grant from Efficiency Maine as part of the Competitive Grants for Large Greenhouse Gas Reduction Projects.

So why did the project at the University of Montana fail while the Colby College plant succeeded? Both included gasification systems that would run on woody feedstock and both were situated on college campuses in states that are generally considered environmentally conscious. The answer lies in part, in consideration of what the biomass plant was replacing.

Colby College’s biomass facility allowed it to reduce its oil consumption by almost 90 percent. On the other hand, Missoula’s power was coming from natural gas, which is cleaner and cheaper than oil. The Montana project was ultimately canceled as a result of “deteriorating discourse,” from members of the community who were concerned about the emissions. No one was going to argue in favor of keeping a system that relied on oil in Waterville.

Better BTU Take: The moral of the story is go after coal or oil, not the natural gas. Farther down the road, we’d like to see all facilities operating from renewable energy, but right now, let’s approach projects that already have existing infrastructures (as these two did) and replace the most harmful (and expensive) fuels first.

For More Information on Colby College’s Biomass Plant:

Maine College Has Biomass Plant for Heat, Energy – Associated Press, Jan. 18, 2012

Maine College Fires Up Biomass Plant – Biomass Magazine, Jan. 27, 2012

Biomass Expansion Information Sheet – Colby College

Chiptec Wood Energy Systems

Project Update: Taylor Biomass Moves Forward in Montgomery

More than 16 months after beginning initial construction on a 21 MW gasification facility in Montgomery, N.Y., Taylor Biomass Energy has finally received all the necessary approvals from the town board to move forward with its project.

Better BTU first brought you the story on Taylor’s struggle to build a waste-to-energy facility next to his recycling plant in December (See: Taylor Made). Like many proposed WTE projects, its hit its fair share of obstacles, ranging from the possibility of losing a $100 million U.S. Department of Energy loan guarantee due to federal cutbacks to securing feedstock. Taylor Biomass also had to appeal a Supreme Court judge’s decision to invalidate the project permits, a battle the company won late in 2011.

“There have been many steps to bring us to this point,” CEO Jim Taylor Jr. said. “I’m grateful to the town of Montgomery for helping us bring this project online in our own hometown.”

The new plant will be located next to the current Taylor Recycling Facility, expanding its capability to accept wood waste, construction and demolition debris and MSW. Taylor Biomass uses sand to indirectly heat and gasify waste through a process developed by Mark Paisley, the company’s chief technology officer.

Taylor Biomass signed its initial feedstock agreement with the city of Newburgh, approximately 15 miles from the Montgomery facility. Since then, the company has approached 41 municipalities, most recently presenting to the Port Jervis council on May 17^th.

Vice President for Business Development James Rollins estimates the company can save Port Jervis approximately 20 percent of the annual costs of waste disposal, translating to roughly $40,000.

Better BTU Take: Pushing a project through isn’t easy at this point of development in the industry. Taylor Biomass shows that persistence pays off and we hope this is the final hurdle for the company. We know that it isn’t over until the turbine starts spinning so we will keep our eye on it.

For Further Reading:

Waste Firm Makes Pitch to Port's Common Council – The Gazette, May 18, 2012

Taylor Biomass Gets Final Approval – Biomass Magazine, May 14, 2012

Better BTU Project Update: Dynamis Energy

No one ever said that breaking into the renewable energy industry was easy and Dynamis Energy has faced obstacles on several fronts in the last month.

We first reported on the Eagle, Idaho company in a Mar. 29, 2012 entry entitled Dynamis Energy: Oh The Places You'll Go. We discussed the company’s strategy of partnering with local firms on several continents to find projects. We examined projects in the various stages of proposal in the U.S., Puerto Rico, Italy and South America.

Politics have been heating up in Ada County, Idaho as the proposed project at the county-owned Hidden Hollow landfill moves closer to construction. Ada County agreed to lease the land to Dynamis in 2010 for $1/year for 20 years in return for the company building and operating a gasification facility that would generate 20 MW of electricity. Idaho Power has signed a purchase power agreement.

Residents of Hidden Springs listen to Dynamis Energy at
the public forum on Apr. 26. Courtesy: Idaho Statesman.

Dynamis filed for an air permit on Apr. 25^th to the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality. The DEQ has 90 days to respond, but as several of us in the industry know, that timeline can be stretched since the clock doesn’t start until the DEQ deems the application “complete.”

In the meantime, public forums have been held at Hidden Springs (Apr. 26) and Rivergien Junior High (May 3) where several critics have voiced outrage at the county’s $2 million investment in the project. Ada County paid the fee for project designs in effort to jumpstart the project. County Commissioner Sharon Ullman defends the decision by explaining that Dynamis will not be granted a building permit until it has repaid the money. She assures skeptics that there are other provisions in place in case the project falls through.

But the controversy of the project has become a central issue in the primary race for two commissioner seats. Of the five candidates running, two are opposed to the project and a change in government leadership could spell trouble for Dynamis. Additionally, the company is in a race against the clock as it must by operating by Dec. 31, 2013 in order to qualify for a federal grant that will cover up to 30% of the cost. The facility must be supplying power by Feb. 14, 2014 in order to satisfy the agreement with Idaho Power. Dynamis CEO C. Lloyd Mahaffey says that the plant will take 15 months to build and construction will start in July.

To complicate matters, several Dynamis executives have had personal financial and legal problems hit the press in the last month. The Idaho Statesman reported that Mahaffey and Senior Vice President of Corporate Development John A. Johnston owe almost $400,000 in back property taxes for 124 parcels of land in their Eagle Springs/Southfork Landing development located in Garden Valley. The pair have until July 23^rd to resolve the issue. Meanwhile, Senior Vice President of Legal and Finance Wade Devin Thomas currently has a federal tax lien of $318,370.10 that was filed in January 2011 for four years of IRS assessments. Additionally, he has a $5,679.99 state tax lien for unpaid 2009 taxes that was filed in Nov. 2010.

The most recent blow to Dynamis came last Thursday when Judy Shelton of Synergy Renewables announced that the company had legally dissolved its cooperative agreement with Dynamis last month. Dynamis had signed the agreement with Synergy and Primoris Renewables to build two waste-to-energy facilities in Puerto Rico. Primoris CFO Peter J. Moerbeek confirmed that the agreement had been dissolved but no one has offered an explanation why.

BETTER BTU TAKE: If you can’t take the heat, get out of the gasification industry. The company appears to still be on track for its facility in Ada County despite obvious concerns by citizens. It’s pretty unusual to see a municipality invest in a technology and its received lots of criticism by some residents for it. Based on the website and reported conversations from Idaho Statesman writer Cynthia Sewell, the company isn’t concerned with its public image and that may be a mistake. Executives obviously haven’t made friends with the reporter and depending on the outcome of the election, things could only get harder. Thomas is right when he says that his personal financial welfare doesn’t affect the company, but it doesn’t look great when three of your top executives owe the government large sums of back taxes…especially when you are trying to convince financers to write large checks. We’ll be interested to see how things progress.

For More Information:

Hidden Springs Residents Want to Know More About Waste-to-Energy Plant, The Idaho Statesman, 4/19/2012

County Candidates, Critics Take On Ada County Garbage-to-Gas Plan, The Idaho Statesman, 5/3/2012

Eagle Company No Longer Part of Puerto Rico Waste-to-Energy Project, The Idaho Statesman, 5/12/2012

Other Better BTU Blog Posts on Dynamis: 

Project Update: Local Energy Company Becomes Latest Stumbling Block for Dynamis (July 31, 2012)

Project Update: Turning Up the Heat in Ada County (June 21, 2012)

Dynamis Energy:Oh the Places You'll Go (Mar. 29, 2012)

Energos Beats the Clock to Keep Knowsley Village Project Alive

Energos kept its four-year plan to build a gasification plant in Knowsley Village in Mercyside, United Kingdom in tact on Friday when it began construction on a 78,000 ton per year facility.

CAD Drawing of proposed Knowsley Village plant.
Courtesy: ENERGOS Website

The Echo, a newspaper in Liverpool first reported on Apr. 30^th that the Norwegian-based company was racing the clock to begin construction before May 9^th, when the planning permission would expire. While it made for a good story, industry experts understood that there was never any real danger for Energos since building work could be carried out before the consultation period for the company’s permit ends in late 2012.  A few bulldozers working on the site entrance and some tree maintenance is all that was required to keep the planning permission alive.

Energos Managing Director Nick Dawber reports that heavy construction will begin in June and take two years to complete.

While it didn’t’ take much to sidestep that problem, Energos knows its not out of the woods yet. Around 500 letters of objection have been filed to the Environmental Agency and struggles with the company’s first gasification plant at the Isle of Wight over the past two years are sure to add complications to the permitting process.

Courtesy: ENERGOS Website

Energos received planning consent for the Knowsley, Mercyside facility in May 2009. The site has since remained dormant due to the bad economy and trouble getting financial backing from banks. The technology firm currently has seven gasification plants producing thermal energy in Norway and Germany in addition to its first electrical plant at Isle of Wight. 

The Isle of Wight gasification plant has become the “first” waste-fueled plant of its kind to receive Renewables Obligation Certificates (ROCs), despite its setbacks in 2010. The facility was shut down twice for brief periods after breaching dioxin emissions limits. Waste Gas Technology, the company in charge of operating the plant worked with Energos and the Environmental Agency to make repairs and the facility has been running continuously since Oct. 2010.

The plant’s small setbacks were not without repercussions, however, as the Isle of Wight Council voted to overhaul its recycling program in and effort to lessen its dependence on the facility. The plant currently processes 30,000 tons per year to produce 1.8 MW of electrical power.

Better BTU Take: We are excited that Energos is getting another chance at a gasification facility in the UK. A large company with proven results in thermal energy that openly advertises its emissions is a great vehicle for the advancement of the technology. Getting permitted in Norway and the UK is no small accomplishment and we are excited to see that parent company ENER-G has opened an office in the U.S. as well.


Energos Company Website

Energos Beat Planning Deadline to Keep Controversial Waste Plant Alive in Knowsley VillageDevelopment Alive  The Echo, May 4, 2012


Waste Giant Energos Face Race Against Time to Meet Planning Deadline for Knowsley Village Plant The Echo, Apr. 30, 2012

Getting a Green Light in Allentown

A three-year battle has finally paid off for Delta Thermo Energy and its supporters as the Allentown City Council voted to approve a $35 million, 38,000 square-foot facility on the Little Lehigh Creek.

More than 450 people showed up to hear the city council's
decision on Mar. 8. Courtesy: Lehigh Valley Live.

City council voted 4-2 in favor of the waste-to-energy plant after having been rejected due to a 3-3 deadlock the previous month. Councilwoman Cynthia Mota changed her vote after visiting the pilot plant in Egg Harbor Township, N.J.

Allentown will sign a 35-year contract with Delta Thermo Energy, which will build and operate a facility adjacent to the wastewater treatment center. The city will pay $5.88 million per year, with annual increases, to Delta Thermo, a New Jersey-based developer that utilizes a combination of technologies presently in Germany and Japan. The technology converts trash and sewage sludge into a clean, coal-like substance that can be burned to create electricity. The end product is what distinguishes this process from gasification, which creates a syngas.

In return, the city will get electricity, an energy credit, and most importantly stability in price increases. This prevents Allentown from being at the mercy of landfill owners who can choose to raise prices. The facility will be cheaper than continuing to truck garbage to landfills. A last minute request gives the city an opportunity to opt out of the contract after 10 years. The plant should be operational by 2015.

The project is largely a result of the labors of Marcel Groen, a partner at Fox Rothschild LLP, and Delta Thermo Energy’s lawyer. The former chairman of the Montgomery County Democratic Party contacted his friend, Allentown Mayor Ed Pawlowski in 2009 and the two have spent the last two years trying to make the proposed plant a reality.

An earlier deal was close to being signed before the city decided to invite other companies to submit bids on the project in February 2011. The delay cost Delta Thermo $31 million in tax-exempt bonds from the Pennsylvania Economic Development Finance Agency, but the company insists it is back on track to financing the project.

Better BTU Take: We’re really interested in this project and hope it comes to fruition. Torrefaction is an interesting process and Delta Thermo’s plant would be unique in combining three technologies. It would be good for the industry to see one of these up and running and then compare to gasification facilities.

One note we’ll make is that we haven’t seen a single mention of permits. We’ve seen plenty of projects get tangled up in the permitting stage so we’ll be interested to see what happens.

More Information:

Allentown, Pa. Breaks Deadlock, Approves WTE Plant (Mar. 8, 2012) – Waste & Recycling News

Allentown Council Rejects Waste-to-Energy Plant (Feb. 15, 2012) – The Morning Call

Dynamis Energy: Oh The Places You’ll Go

For most companies, securing the first commercial contract can be a long and tedious process. It can take years to refine the technology, find a way to lower production costs and find the right client. While Dynamis Energy hasn’t yet crossed the finish line with a completed commercial project, its making moves on several continents.

Dynamis Energy is the creator of the 3.0 Waste-to-Energy Technology, a waste-to-energy system that is similar in some regards to the TOS Plant that has been operating in Barrow, Alaska since 1996. The Eagle, Idaho company’s simple design makes it easy to operate and relatively low-cost; something investors can get on board with.

In the last two years, Dynamis has announced plans to build several facilities on three different continents. The first, and most promising, projects began in its home state of Idaho. Hired by Ada County in June 2010, Dynamis signed on to build a facility at the Hidden Hollow Landfill in Boise. The company will lease the landfill for $1/year for 20 years and build a facility that will process 250 tons of solid waste per day in exchange. On Feb. 24, the Idaho Public Utilities Commission announced that it had approved the rate contract and that Idaho Power will sign a 20-year sales agreement. Operation is currently set to begin on Feb. 14, 2014.

Dynamis Energy's 3.0 Waste-to-Energy Technology

Eight months later, Clark County followed suit. After establishing the Eastern Idaho Regional Solid Waste District and completing a feasibility study, the county hired Dynamis to build 120,000 ton per year facility that will generate 13.5 MW of electricity. Rocky Mountain Power will purchase the power from Dynamis. The plant will be built in the Centennial Energy Park located East of Dubois. Construction will begin this summer and hopes to be finished within 15 months.

In February, Dynamis received good news on a project it has in the words in Puerto Rico. Dallas-based contractors Primoris Renewables announced it signed a $40 million contract to build two waste-to-energy facilties, working alongside Synergy Renewables and Dynamis. The plants will each process 180,000 tons annually to produce 10 MW of power.

In June 2011, the Idaho company announced it had entered a joint venture with All Way for the construction and management of a facility that will be integrated with an existing waste management plant in Lombardo, Italy. Permits have already been secured and construction was scheduled to start in late 2011, although we haven’t been able to find confirmation that it has started. The facility is currently scheduled to go online in fall 2012.

As if it wasn’t busy enough, Dynamis Energy announced in October 2011 that it was partnering with Planova, a Sao Paulo-based development firm, to pursue opportunities in South America. The pair will focus primarily on possibilities in Argentina, Brazil and Peru.

Better BTU Take: This company is on the move! We love that Dynamis is partnering with local firms to tap into foreign markets. It should keep the small company from becoming overextended. The question will be how many of these projects come to fruition – the announcement to completion ratio isn’t favorable and the more public projects that fail to cross the finish line, the harder it is for our industry to convince others of its legitimacy. Still, the projects seem headed in the right direction and the one in Boise has sparked interest for other counties in Idaho and Wyoming. This is a difficult company to keep up with due to the fact that their website is tragically out of date, but we’ll do our best to bring you the updates here!

Idaho Public Utilities Commission Press Release (Feb. 24, 2012) - PUC Approves Idaho Power Contract with Landfill Waste-to-Energy Project

Waste Management World (Feb. 1, 2012) - $40 Million Waste to Energy Gasificaation Contract for Dallas Firm

Dynamis Press Release (Nov. 11, 2011) - Dynamis Energy and Planova Sign Agreement to Construct Waste-to-Energy Plants in Brazil

Dynamis Press Release (June 9, 2011) - Dynamis Energy and All Way Sign Agreement to Construct Waste-to-Energy Plant in Lombardy, Italy

Waste Management World (Feb. 18, 2011) - 120,000 Ton Waste to Energy Gasification Facility Planned in Eastern Idaho

Other Better BTU Blog Posts on Dynamis: 

Project Update: Local Energy Company Becomes Latest Stumbling Block for Dynamis (July 31, 2012)

Project Update: Turning Up the Heat in Ada County (June 21, 2012)

Better BTU Project Update: Dynamis Energy (May 14, 2012)

Another One Bites The Dust…Or Does It?

We’ve seen it happen time and time again. A municipality or public institution announces its plans to build a waste-to-energy plant and environmental groups and opponents wreak havoc in order to block it. Historically, these tactics have been successful, especially when targeting public entities. But maybe not in Cleveland.

Days after the U.S. Environmental Agency sent a letter criticizing the city’s standards and urging the Ohio EPA to review the project, the city has amended its design and plans to resubmit for an air permit. This comes as a surprise to many who had thought the final nail on the coffin had been put in place.

A map shows where the proposed gasification plant at the
Ridge Road Transfer Station. (Courtesy: Google Maps)

Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson announced plans for a $180 million gasification plant at the Ridge Road Transfer Station in early 2010. The idea is that the facility would produce power that would be sold to Cleveland Public Power. Before Jackson had even finished his speech, opponents of the project set to work to kill it.

The city sends approximately 60 truckloads of waste to landfills daily, trucking it to Mansfield for a price tag of $9 million each year. Jackson and his cohorts aim to reduce that number by a third and have set an additional goal of having Cleveland Public Power be 25% dependent on alternative energy sources by 2025.

The proposed gasification plant would be built by Princeton Environmental Group of New Jersey and use technology from Kinsei Sangyo, Co. in Japan. Cleveland’s facility would process about 560 tons of trash per day to produce 15 MW of power.

City Councilman Brian Cummins has tried to block the
gasification plant from moving forward. 

City Councilman Brian Cummins had led the charge for killing the waste-to-energy project. Cummins and critics from the Ohio Citizen Action and the Earth Day Coalition cite many concerns including the possibility of toxins like lead and mercury to be emitted through its exhaust, the inherit risk in a new technology and the cost. They propose trying to bolster the city’s lagging recycling rate (Cummins says the rate is only 5% while the city cites 11%) and exploring composting and anaerobic projects.

Regardless of what the actual recycling rate in Cleveland is, efforts have been made to increase recycling over the past three years and the city insists that it would continue to promote the practice. Research shows that recycling actually INCREASES in areas with waste-to-energy facilities, in part because metals and glass are automatically pulled out of the feedstock before it is processed.

As for the question about mercury and lead, Cleveland Chief of Communications Maureen Harper assures us that that the plant doesn’t create these elements and so they will not be emitted if they don’t go into the gasification process.

Additionally, the city funded a composting project in June and July 2010 where 15 tons of compostable materials were diverted from the landfill. Pulling organic material for composting isn’t always economically feasible and it doesn’t do any harm to the environment or the wallet it to send it through the gasifier.

The city’s modifications in an attempt to meet the EPA standard include raising the smokestack from 175 feet to 200 feet, which would spread the material over a wider area.

Better BTU Take: It’s still a toss up whether or not this project will make it to fruition, especially with the dedicated group of naysayers working to stop it. For our sake, we hope it does and we’ll keep our eyes on it.

For more information on this project:

Cleveland's Proposed WTE Plant Back on Track? - Waste & Recycling News (Feb. 24, 2012)

City of Cleveland Hopes to Spin Garbage Into Profits with New Waste-to-Energy Plant - The Cleveland Plain Dealer (May 7, 2011)

City of Cleveland's Office of Sustainability - Recycling and Waste Reduction

Study Showing How Recycling Increases in Areas with WTE Plants:

Recycling and WTE Compatibility by Jonathan Kiser

Various articles by Dr. Nick J. Themelis, Columbia University

Better BTU Brings You the Updates

Over the past two months we’ve blogged about five different projects in the realm of biomass, using various forms of gasification. As promised, we’ve continued to monitor these projects and will bring you periodic updates so you can give your Google search bar a rest. So sit back, and read up!

Taylor Biomass Energy: Taylor’s plans for a waste gasification facility in Montgomery, N.Y. have experienced several snags over the past two years but an article in the Times Herald-Democrat announced that the company has finally secured feedstock agreements.

CEO Jim Taylor (Second from the Left) with the Orange
County Chamber of Commerce in July 2011. Courtesy: OCC

Published on Jan. 24^th, the paper reports, “at least seven Orange County municipalities have now signed 20-year contracts” with Taylor Biomass Energy to haul their trash to the facility upon completion.

The news represents a big a win for CEO Jim Taylor whose previous negotiations with the county ended in August over the question of an escape clause. At that time, the City of Newburgh was Taylor’s only guaranteed customer for the proposed plant.

The latest announcement says that Cornwall, New Windsor, Goshen, Walden, Montgomery and Cornwall-on-Hudson have now joined Newburgh as future customers of Taylor Biomass Energy.

While the feedstock agreements are a good sign, Taylor still has a long way to go before it can open doors on a new facility. Although Sen. Charles Schumer has publicly supported the project, Taylor still needs to secure private funding for the $145 million facility in order to qualify for the federal loan guarantee he’s after.

Additionally, Taylor Biomass Energy is waiting for the outcome of a permit dispute it has with the state. A New York Supreme Court judge “invalidated the project’s permits and approvals” in September. The company won a stay after appealing the decision that allows for construction to continue but is not out of the woods yet.

Read more about Taylor Biomass Energy

Municipalities Sign On With Taylor Biomass - Times Herald-Democrat (1/24/12)

Sundrop Fuels: The Colorado-based company is moving forward with plans for its inaugural facility in Boyce, La. The Louisiana State Board Commission gave “preliminary approval to the issuance of $450 million in bonds by Rapides Parish officials to equip a new facility,” as reported by The Times-Picayune on Jan. 20^th.

The latest timeline has the pilot plant near Alexandria, La. on line by 2013 with a full plant functioning two years later.

Read more about Sundrop Fuels (discussed mid-article):

State Bond Commission approves Citizen Insurance Bond Refinancing - The Times-Picayune, Jan. 20, 2012

S4 Energy Solutions: Our guest blogger first put S4 Energy Solutions (named because of plasma is the fourth state of matter) on our radar back in November. The company opened the first commercial plasma gasification facility in the U.S. at the site of the Columbia Ridge Landfill in Arlington, Ore. The project is featured in February’s issue of Wired magazine.

A diagram of the S4 plasma gasification process.
Courtesy: S4 Energy Solutions. 

Plasma gasification has been a hot topic in the renewable energy field but has proved “too energy- and capital-intensive for real-world use on everyday trash,” according to magazine writer David Wolman. But S4 cofounder Jeff Surma is convinced he can make the process work on a large scale and has received millions in financial backing from Waste Management, that owns the landfill in Arlington.

Read More about S4 Energy Solutions:

High-Powered Plasma Turns Garbage Into Gas - Wired, February 2012

A Tale of Two Cities

As developers propose new projects across the United States, more than just the feedstock and financial angles need to be examined. We look at two different towns and how community support can ultimately make or break a project. 

HARLEYVILLE, S.C. – Construction is beginning for a $46 million biomass plant that will burn 280,000 tons of logging debris per year and generate 15 MW of electricity. The plant is being developed by Southeast Renewable Energy, which has other facilities in the Palmetto State and will provide 20 new jobs in an area where unemployment nears 10 percent.

Locations of Southeast Renewable Energy facilities in
South Carolina. Courtesy: Biomass Magazine. 

County leaders as well as state and federal environmental regulators have embraced the project. Dorchester County is giving fee-in-lieu-of tax incentives and contracted to supply the plant with 20 tons per year of debris wood from county operations. Moncks Corner-based utility Santee Cooper plans to buy power from the plant after closing two of its smaller coal-burning plants due to new EPA air pollution regulations.

Locals in Harleyville are generally in support of the project, despite the fact that it will be within one mile of the town of approximately 2,400. Although there are still some questions about the level of carbon dioxide, many residents see it as the lesser of two evils. The project is exempt from EPA CO2 regulations due to the fact that it has been qualified as a “minor emitter” rather than a “major emitter.” The designation has raised some eyebrows, but most still prefer the new plant to coal-burning options.

MISSOULA, MONT. – University of Montana announced it was scrapping plans to build a $16 million biomass gasification boiler on campus at the end of 2011. University President Royce Engstrom cited  "deteriorating discourse” as a large reason for the decision (AP).

Plan for University of Montana biomass gasifier.
Courtesy: Biomass Magazine

The proposed plant would have used trees killed by bark beetles as its feedstock to produce heat and power for the campus. Despite the fact that it would have been the cleanest wood-fired system in the state, several prominent members of the Missoula community spoke out against the project. Concerns were raised about how the rise in emissions over the current natural gas plant would affect the community of more than 66,000 people. The new plant would emit twice as much nitrogen dioxide and three times as much particulate matter (The Missoulian, 11/18/11).

The University offered to pay for additional pollution-control testing in November after the Missoula City-County Air Pollution Control Board postponed its vote on whether to permit the project.

Better BTU Take: We liked both projects and think the location had a lot to do with the outcome. Although there would have been an increase in emissions with the change from natural gas to biomass, it would still have been extremely low. The numbers on the lefthand side of a scale can frequently make small changes look large.

Additionally, it makes more sense to seek out areas that are less densely populated, as it will reduce the risk of controversy and bad media coverage. The political and cultural environment in Missoula wasn’t right and since the town already had a natural gas facility, its conversion to biomass wasn’t deemed as pressing as in areas with coal-burning plants.

The moral of the story: Concentrate on displacing coal-fired electric generation over natural gas boilers. Begin with sparsely populated areas in the country and work your way inwards to the metropolitan areas.

For more on Southeast Renewable Energy’s project in Harleyville, check out this article from The Post and Courier, in Charleston, S.C.

For more information University of Montana’s failed project, see the article from The Missoulian from 11/18/2011 and the Associated Press write-up on KULR-8. 

Liquid Fuel: The Holy Grail of Biomass

Imagine a world where the conflict in the Middle East doesn’t determine the price of filling up your car in America. According to Sundrop Fuels, it could be a reality sooner than you think.

Image courtesy of Waste Management World. 

Although only in business for three years, Sundrop Fuels is already making big strides in the advancement of “green gasoline.” Based in Colorado, the company produces advanced biofuels by gasifying cellulosic feedstock. The result is a clean renewable form of fuel that can be used in combustion engines, such as automobiles. 

And now Sundrop has a site for its inaugural facility. The company announced on Nov. 22, 2011 that it has purchased 1,200 acres of land near Alexandria, La. to build its first production facility. Aiming to be running at full speed by 2014, Sundrop Fuels estimates it will be able to produce close to 50 million gallons of “green gasoline” annually.

Unlike similar projects in the liquid fuel experiment, Sundrop Fuels hasn’t received federal loans to subsidize its project. The state is allowing the sale of tax-exempt private activity bonds and will offer standard performance-based incentives for the 150 new jobs the plant will bring to Alexandria, but both of these initiatives involve no risk to the taxpayer. This comes as a relief to many who are familiar with the $156 million loans the now-defunct Range Fuels received for its failed project in Mississippi.

So where is the money coming from for this $450-500 million facility? Chesapeake Energy Company became a 50 percent stakeholder in the company in July with a $155 million investment. Oak Investment Partners and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers have also made $20 million investments and hold spots on the company’s Board of Directors.

While the forward motion on the project is exciting, many experts in the industry feel we are still at least a decade out from seeing any measurable results. The recent announcement of Range Fuel’s bankruptcy also serves as a reminder that we are still in the pioneering stages of this industry.

Better BTU Take: Big bets by big guys makes this a project worth following. 

Sundrop Fuels Press Release