What Happened?
A growing number of communities are investing in waste-to-energy projects as a means to diversify renewable energy sources while diverting excess garbage from overused landfills.
Lebanon
The city of Lebanon, Tennessee, has plans to install a waste-to-energy facility that will provide the community with a sustainable method of waste disposal while producing clean power in the conversion process. The downdraft gasification plant is expected to convert up to 64 tons of waste into a fuel gas daily – generating up to 300 kilowatts of electricity. The waste used to generate the fuel gas is made up of:
- Wood
- Scrap tires
- Sewer sludge
The waste-to-energy facility will be able to convert 95 percent of the waste material used into a fuel gas. The remaining 5 percent of material can be recycled or sold for agricultural or industrial purposes. The power generated from the plant will be used to operate the city’s wastewater treatment plant nearby. The conversion plant is also expected to keep more than 8,000 tons of waste materials out of landfills annually, while reducing carbon emissions by 2,500 tons each year.
To pay for the$3.5 million project, Lebanon is using Qualified Energy Conservation Bonds allocated through the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation offered by the U.S. Department of Energy. The bonds are used to repay communities for 70 percent of interest expense.
Port Alberni
The city of Port Alberni in British Columbia is considering a project to create a large-scale waste-to-energy plant that would be made possible through a public-private partnership. The proposed biomass project would reduce energy consumption, lower electric bills and increase the city’s sustainability. The private company that partners with Port Alberni would benefit from a more diversified energy portfolio which would make them more successful in the community, Alberni Valley Times reported.
Under the proposed strategy, the waste-to-energy facility would burn 3,000 tons of wood waste annually, diverting it from entering landfills. The byproduct from the burning process would be converted into heat energy and distributed to city buildings through a network of underground pipes.
The biomass project is expected to save the community $1 million in annual heating costs while generating $100,000 in revenue from non-municipal building owners participating in the system, Alberni Valley Times reported.
Biobattery
As more municipalities invest in the technology to turn waste products into biofuels, a German research organization is experimenting with a biobattery system to enable even more types of waste to be converted into energy. The Fraunhofer Institute for Environmental Energy and Safety technology developed the biobattery to empower conversion plants to take in a wide variety of waste and create electricity and fuels to power vehicles and buildings. The biobattery uses several materials to generate energy including:
- Sewage sludge
- Green waste
- Food production residues
- Straw
- Animal excrement
The biobattery converts these materials into electricity, heat, purified gas, engine oil and high-quality biochar, Eco-Business reported.
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