Unstash That Trash: Material(s) Progress in Making Fuels, Chemicals from Municipal Solid Waste

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) News this week arrived from Canada that Enerkem has received the lowest carbon intensity value ever issued by the British Columbia Ministry of Energy and Mines for its ethanol product under the Renewable and Low Carbon Fuel Requirements Regulation.

The confirmed carbon intensity is a shocker. Where gasoline check in at the testing center at 88 grams of CO2-equivalent per megajoule of energy, Enerkem fuel clocks in at 55 below zero.

How possible? Enerkem’s product removes carbon emissions from the atmosphere, rather than adding to them. So, all you really need to do is blend three gallons of Enerkem fuel with two gallons of conventional gasoline, and you’ve solved the transportation climate change problem.

1. Finding enough feedstock.
2. Affording the fuel.
3. Developing enough cars that could tolerate fuels at those blends.
3. Building enough capacity.

For now, it’s enough that the British Columbia Renewable and Low Carbon Fuel Requirements Regulation opens up the door for Enerkem to sell its advanced ethanol in the province, in addition to the local Alberta market where its world’s first full-scale facility in operation is located.

1. A cellulosic ethanol project in Varennes, Quebec called Vanerco — in partnership with Greenfield. STDC Canada could be investing up to $40M in it. More on that

2. We reported last month that Enerkem is moving forward with the $200 million MSW-to-ethanol plant first announced last May with plans to site it outside St. Paul in Dakota County. Together with local recycling company SKB Environmental, a formal presentation was made in February to the local city council but the companies have yet to submit a proposal for permitting.

If all goes according to plan, the facility could be online as soon as 2020 using much of the county’s 400,000 tons of MSW per year.

3. We reported last October that a partnership comprised of AkzoNobel, Van Gansewinkel, Air Liquide, AVR and Enerkem is looking to build its waste-to-chemicals plant in Rotterdam in collaboration with the Port of Rotterdam, the City of Rotterdam, the province of South Holland and InnovationQuarter.

4. Well, there’s a JV to build a project in China, We reported on it back in October 2014. Enerkem at that time inked a JV with Shanghai Marine Diesel Engine Research Institute. Not much heard on that since.

The primary competitor for MSW feedstock is Fulcrum Bioenergy, which has not yet started construction on its first commercial project in Nevada, but has assembled an awesome set of investors including United Airlines, Cathay Pacific and BP — not to mention Waste Management, which also invested in Enerkem.

Fiberight’s MSW project -- We reported in March that a superior court judge has ruled against Fiberight’s competitors who sought to have the company’s environmental permits for a planned MSW-to-biofuel plant revoked, instead affirming the permits and opening the path for the company to move forward with its proposed project. The committee that manages the MSW for more than 100 communities in the state chose to partner with Fiberight on waste manage from April 2018 when its contract expires with the Penobscot Energy Recovery Corp., the same entity that brought suit against the company.

Sierra’s project -- We reported in March that Sierra Energy has teamed with the Army to trial its FastOx Gasifier technology that turns MSW into hydrogen for use in vehicles, carbon monoxide for electricity production and liquid metal as well as slag for reuse in other industries. The demo is being built at the Army’s Fort Hunter Liggit following initial testing at the Army’s Renewable Energy Testing Center at McClellan Park. The gasifier burns at 4,000 degrees F, hotter than the inside of a volcano, allowing it to process anything that is put in it.

Ciello’s project -- In January we reported that Cielo Waste Solutions planned to invest C$7 million to upgrade the mothballed Western Biodiesel facility it recently bought for C$2.3 million in Alberta to its MSW-to-renewable diesel technology by the end of the year.

In September 2016, we reported that Wilson Bio-Chemical opened its Micro Autoclave Fiber Production Plant for turning MSW into biomass fiber that can be converted into a range of products, such as butanol, hydrogen, acetone and ethanol.

In August 2016 we highlighted a new technology from Cornerstone Resources, Cornerstone Resources – called BurCell system, it is a disruptive vacuum aided thermal decomposition process which converts pre-sorted MSW and other feedstocks into a consistent, homogenous process engineered cellulosic product. It is uniquely differentiated from existing technologies competing to provide MSW recycling, landfill reduction, and organic feedstock solutions for energy and bioproducts conversion processes. READ MORE