In Part 1 of this article, we examined Harvest Power’s new facility in Richmond, BC, Canada, near Vancouver. In this continued article, we explore the issues around Harvest Power’s east coast facilities.
Brandon Moffatt, senior VP of energy for Harvest Power, says his company’s AD technology not only deals with organic wastestreams of food and green waste, but also FOG, biosolids, and, in some cases, construction and demolition material. It’s embraced in markets looking to capture GHG reductions or reduce the transportation costs around the wastestream, he says. “In the Northeast, as well as on the West Coast, the organic fraction of the wastestream makes up a considerable portion of that. You’re seeing municipalities and states looking at policies that would separate out the organic fraction from the MSW stream and look to process that material in close proximity to where it’s generated to allow for methane capture and ultimately renewable energy production.”
In addition to the Vancouver facility, Harvest Power also has two facilities: in London (Ontario, Canada) and in Orlando (FL). “You have to have the right economics to allow for the projects,” says Moffatt. “A policy needs to be in place to stimulate the diversion of the organics out of the wastestream, and then there has to be a processing fee that people will pay us to handle that material. We focus on the East and West Coasts, because they pay higher processing fees. There also has to be an incentive for the utilities to take on the type of energy we produce.”
In
Part 1 of this article, we examined Harvest Power’s new facility in Richmond, BC, Canada, near Vancouver. In this continued article, we explore the issues around Harvest Power’s east coast facilities.
Brandon Moffatt, senior VP of energy for Harvest Power, says his company’s AD technology not only deals with organic wastestreams of food and green waste, but also FOG, biosolids, and, in some cases, construction and demolition material. It’s embraced in markets looking to capture GHG reductions or reduce the transportation costs around the wastestream, he says. “In the Northeast, as well as on the West Coast, the organic fraction of the wastestream makes up a considerable portion of that. You’re seeing municipalities and states looking at policies that would separate out the organic fraction from the MSW stream and look to process that material in close proximity to where it’s generated to allow for methane capture and ultimately renewable energy production.”
In addition to the Vancouver facility, Harvest Power also has two facilities: in London (Ontario, Canada) and in Orlando (FL). “You have to have the right economics to allow for the projects,” says Moffatt. “A policy needs to be in place to stimulate the diversion of the organics out of the wastestream, and then there has to be a processing fee that people will pay us to handle that material. We focus on the East and West Coasts, because they pay higher processing fees. There also has to be an incentive for the utilities to take on the type of energy we produce.”
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There are opportunities for various technologies to work side-by-side, he points out. “We’re seeing more diversion. Municipalities are looking for residents to separate the materials in the MSW stream.”
The end goal on the East Coast is producing renewable energy as well as lowering the costs of hauling the heavy organic waste, says Moffatt. “On the West Coast, it’s more about greenhouse gas [GHG] mitigation. Organic diversion is one way to reduce methane and produce energy, which is a much better situation for the environment.”
Enerkem’s thermochemical process converts MSW into biofuels and chemicals through a four-step process that consists of feedstock preparation, gasification, cleaning and conditioning of syngas, and catalytic synthesis. The company’s primary focus is the commercial production of cellulosic ethanol, which first requires the production of methanol as a chemical building block. Enerkem can sell its methanol as an end product or use it as a key intermediate to produce other renewable chemicals. The process is designed to use relatively low temperatures and pressures, reducing energy requirements and costs. Its first commercial project is the Enerkem Alberta Biofuels Facility in Edmonton (Alberta, Canada).
According to the company, the plant is the world’s first major collaboration between a metropolitan center and a waste-to-biofuels producer to turn municipal waste into methanol and ethanol. It’s part of a waste-to-biofuels initiative in partnership with the city of Edmonton and Alberta Innovates Energy and Environment Solutions. Edmonton is supplying MSW that has been pre-treated and converted into RDF, and Enerkem is running the plant. “That RDF gets fed to our gasification system, and then thermochemically converted into methanol, and eventually ethanol,” says Tim Cesarek, senior VP of Enerkem.
The facility’s commissioning plan was completed during the summer, with biomethanol production taking place during startup. A module converting the biomethanol into advanced ethanol will be added in the end of 2015. “Eventually, the plant will take in 100,000 bone-dry tons of refused derived fuel and convert that into 10 million gallons, or roughly 38 million liters of ethanol,” he says. “One ton of refuse derived fuel produces 100 gallons of ethanol. It’s the same kind of ethanol that ultimately gets blended into our fuel stream in North America. Our ethanol qualifies for a cellulosic RIN [renewable identification number] as the next generation form of ethanol. That will be blended into the fuel stream as an oxygenate.”
The realization, 25 years ago, that the landfill was full and the city was unable to site another, triggered an effort among city officials to pursue waste diversion and recycling activities, says Christian Felske, general supervisor with waste management services for Edmonton.
Cesarek adds, “Their next best alternative was to export the waste outside of the city to the closest landfill, which was orders of magnitude further away than their existing landfill, resulting in an increase in disposal costs.”
As a result, Edmonton embarked upon a strategy to divert MSW streams away from the landfill. “They started down the path of a curbside program that included single stream recyclables and then garbage,” he says. “The garbage goes through an integrated processing and transfer facility where the organic material is separated off and composted.”
The two measures took the city up to 60% of waste diversion for Edmonton’s residential wastestream. “About 12 years ago, we looked at different technologies for the residual 40%,” says Felske. “The goal of this project is to take the non-recyclable and non-compostable wastestream and convert it to a higher-value product.”
City officials considered more than 100 different types of technologies to process the residual stream not being recycled or composted into something useful. Ranking those technologies, with the assistance of consultants, they chose to work with Enerkem. For the next 25 years, Enerkem will produce ethanol from RDF. A refiner will take the ethanol to a blending facility to be blended with gasoline, and then it will go to a filling station or retail station. Use of the technology will raise Edmonton’s diversion rate to 90% in 2016, says Felske.
GHG reduction is a major project benefit, Cesarek says. “Our ethanol has 60% less greenhouse gas emissions than gasoline. It is a very clean process, in that we have a tremendous amount of flexibility in how we manage our gases downstream.” Another benefit is “the growth of the circular economy,” he says. “There are a number of multiple commodities that, ultimately, can be separated from the wastestream and resold, but there are some that either become too contaminated, or may not have a market. We have the ability to take products that ultimately are non-recyclable or have exhausted the recycle stream and convert them to another end use, whether that be transportation fuel or a chemical.”
Such chemicals find their way into products used for packaging items. “What’s driving our municipalities to look at our facility broader than the relationship we have with the city of Edmonton is very similar dynamics where landfill lives are at their end, incineration lives are at their end, or they’re finding that our approach can lower their overall disposal costs because of the added value of the end product we produce,” says Cesarek.
Edmonton is also developing a project for its organic wastestream using AD technology to produce a biogas, which will be converted to power and heat onsite. Construction is to begin in the summer; the facility expects to be fully operational in the second quarter of 2017.
There are opportunities for various technologies to work side-by-side, he points out. “We’re seeing more diversion. Municipalities are looking for residents to separate the materials in the MSW stream.”
The end goal on the East Coast is producing renewable energy as well as lowering the costs of hauling the heavy organic waste, says Moffatt. “On the West Coast, it’s more about greenhouse gas [GHG] mitigation. Organic diversion is one way to reduce methane and produce energy, which is a much better situation for the environment.”
Enerkem’s thermochemical process converts MSW into biofuels and chemicals through a four-step process that consists of feedstock preparation, gasification, cleaning and conditioning of syngas, and catalytic synthesis. The company’s primary focus is the commercial production of cellulosic ethanol, which first requires the production of methanol as a chemical building block. Enerkem can sell its methanol as an end product or use it as a key intermediate to produce other renewable chemicals. The process is designed to use relatively low temperatures and pressures, reducing energy requirements and costs. Its first commercial project is the Enerkem Alberta Biofuels Facility in Edmonton (Alberta, Canada).
According to the company, the plant is the world’s first major collaboration between a metropolitan center and a waste-to-biofuels producer to turn municipal waste into methanol and ethanol. It’s part of a waste-to-biofuels initiative in partnership with the city of Edmonton and Alberta Innovates Energy and Environment Solutions. Edmonton is supplying MSW that has been pre-treated and converted into RDF, and Enerkem is running the plant. “That RDF gets fed to our gasification system, and then thermochemically converted into methanol, and eventually ethanol,” says Tim Cesarek, senior VP of Enerkem.
The facility’s commissioning plan was completed during the summer, with biomethanol production taking place during startup. A module converting the biomethanol into advanced ethanol will be added in the end of 2015. “Eventually, the plant will take in 100,000 bone-dry tons of refused derived fuel and convert that into 10 million gallons, or roughly 38 million liters of ethanol,” he says. “One ton of refuse derived fuel produces 100 gallons of ethanol. It’s the same kind of ethanol that ultimately gets blended into our fuel stream in North America. Our ethanol qualifies for a cellulosic RIN [renewable identification number] as the next generation form of ethanol. That will be blended into the fuel stream as an oxygenate.”
The realization, 25 years ago, that the landfill was full and the city was unable to site another, triggered an effort among city officials to pursue waste diversion and recycling activities, says Christian Felske, general supervisor with waste management services for Edmonton.
Cesarek adds, “Their next best alternative was to export the waste outside of the city to the closest landfill, which was orders of magnitude further away than their existing landfill, resulting in an increase in disposal costs.”
As a result, Edmonton embarked upon a strategy to divert MSW streams away from the landfill. “They started down the path of a curbside program that included single stream recyclables and then garbage,” he says. “The garbage goes through an integrated processing and transfer facility where the organic material is separated off and composted.”
The two measures took the city up to 60% of waste diversion for Edmonton’s residential wastestream. “About 12 years ago, we looked at different technologies for the residual 40%,” says Felske. “The goal of this project is to take the non-recyclable and non-compostable wastestream and convert it to a higher-value product.”
City officials considered more than 100 different types of technologies to process the residual stream not being recycled or composted into something useful. Ranking those technologies, with the assistance of consultants, they chose to work with Enerkem. For the next 25 years, Enerkem will produce ethanol from RDF. A refiner will take the ethanol to a blending facility to be blended with gasoline, and then it will go to a filling station or retail station. Use of the technology will raise Edmonton’s diversion rate to 90% in 2016, says Felske.
GHG reduction is a major project benefit, Cesarek says. “Our ethanol has 60% less greenhouse gas emissions than gasoline. It is a very clean process, in that we have a tremendous amount of flexibility in how we manage our gases downstream.” Another benefit is “the growth of the circular economy,” he says. “There are a number of multiple commodities that, ultimately, can be separated from the wastestream and resold, but there are some that either become too contaminated, or may not have a market. We have the ability to take products that ultimately are non-recyclable or have exhausted the recycle stream and convert them to another end use, whether that be transportation fuel or a chemical.”
Such chemicals find their way into products used for packaging items. “What’s driving our municipalities to look at our facility broader than the relationship we have with the city of Edmonton is very similar dynamics where landfill lives are at their end, incineration lives are at their end, or they’re finding that our approach can lower their overall disposal costs because of the added value of the end product we produce,” says Cesarek.
Edmonton is also developing a project for its organic wastestream using AD technology to produce a biogas, which will be converted to power and heat onsite. Construction is to begin in the summer; the facility expects to be fully operational in the second quarter of 2017.
