Tennessee city receives Governor’s Environmental Stewardship Award

Nashville, Tennessee-based Aries Clean Energy’s biomass gasification plant just outside Nashville has been recognized as part of the city of Lebanon’s receipt of a 2017 Governor’s Environmental Stewardship Award.

Now in its 31st year, the awards annually showcase exceptional voluntary actions that improve or protect the environment. Gov. Bill Haslam and Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC) Commissioner Bill Martineau jointly announced the award in the energy and renewable resources category after a panel of 22 independent professionals representing conservation, environmental, agricultural and academic professionals judged nearly 90 entries from across the state.

Aries Clean Energy deployed its patented gasification technology in design and construction of the plant that was commissioned in late 2016. It uses a blend of wood waste from local industries, scrap tires from Wilson County and biosolids from the city’s wastewater treatment plant to produce green electrical power.

“We're reducing landfill use, creating clean energy and keeping thousands of tons of carbon out of the air each year, all with a positive cash flow,” says Lebanon Mayor Bernie Ash. “This is a win all the way around.”
Developing the project involved implementing a partnership between the city and county, as well as a private company based in Lebanon, Rockwood Recycling, which specializes in logistics and preparation of commercial wood waste and scrap tires. The gasification plant can process up to 64 tons per day of material and produce 420 kilowatts of electricity using organic rankine cycle (ORC) generators.

Because of the partnerships in place, the Lebanon facility annually:

• diverts 8,000 tons of wood waste from the landfill, enough to fill a line of tractor-trailers four miles long;
• makes beneficial use of 36,000 scrap tires (450 tons);
• eliminates 2,500 tons of carbon emissions from the air, equivalent to that produced by 479 automobiles; and
• generates 1.8 million kilowatt-hours of electricity—sufficient to power 350 average homes for the year.

“This plant is a terrific model of our patented clean energy technology in action, and what public/private partnerships can achieve,” says Aries CEO Greg Bafalis. “Recognition of what we built from the state’s environmental community is clearly appreciated. At the same time, the award says Lebanon’s leaders had tremendous vision and initiative in putting this project together and making it work. Congratulations to Mayor Ash, and each of those council members and public works professionals involved.”