Enerkem GreenField Alberta project receives permits; first waste-to-ethanol/drop-in fuels venture in North America; special Digest profile

In Canada, Enerkem today announced that Enerkem GreenField Alberta Biofuels has been granted North America’s first unconditional commercial permit ever awarded to produce 10 Mgy of advanced biofuels from sorted municipal solid waste.

The Enerkem technology utilizes diverse feedstocks, including sorted municipal solid waste, construction and demolition wood, treated wood and forest residues.

The technology is complementary to recycling and composting since it uses end-waste that would otherwise be land-filled, and it converts it to liquid fuel. In fact, the local government pays Enerkem to take away their waste and convert into various fuels, such as synthetic diesel, synthetic gasoline and dimethyl ether, as well as green chemicals.

The Enerkem process enjoys a relative cost advantage over first generation/grain-based ethanol as well as other second generation types of ethanol. Most importantly, Enerkem’s gasification process requires minimal additional energy or water, and the water that is required is reused in a closed circuit. With certain feedstocks, the process is even a net producer of quality water. Materials are not burned during the process so there are no emissions of furans and dioxins.

The Enerkem technology is currently in operation and new plants are under construction. Since 2003, the company’s technology has been tested at a pilot-scale facility in Sherbrooke, Quebec. In mid-January 2009, Enerkem initiated start-up operations at its commercial-scale syngas-to-ethanol/methanol plant in Westbury, Quebec.

In March 2009, the company signed a Memorandum of Intent to build a $250 million Mississippi project to recycle and convert municipal solid waste. The company also plans an eastern Alberta plant to make 10 million gallons a year from municipal waste.

Enerkem’s CEO, Vincent Chornet, confirmed that Edmonton will gave  a 25-year commitment for 100,000 tons of presorted material.  The project is slated to commence construction at the end of 2009, and it will take about 18 months to build.

“Each of our trains produces 10 Mgy of ethanol.” Chornet added. “We have applied for a loan guarantee from the DOE. It’s a slow process; they are quite swamped. They were not staffed to process all that volume. There won’t be a formal decision until the summer. We’ve asked for a $200 million guarantee, or 80 percent of the total of $250 million for the project.”

Chornet is clear what he sees as the comparative advantages of gasification compared to other technologies that can deal with landfill, including pyrolysis and acid hydrolysis.

“Compared to other technologies like acid hydrolysis, we are not chasing the sugars in the fibers, and we use more of the waste. We can use putrescents, plastics, wood and textiles as well as the sugars. One of the most important things to get right is to have a gasifier that can handle different types of materials well, and that you get a good balance of hydrogen and carbon monoxide in the syngas. At one end you might have plastic and another end cardboard. ”

“The key is to use non-homogenous material,” Chornet added. “We clean extensively and remove particulates, we process into methanol and at that point you have a chemical building block to go to ethanol or to drop-in fuels such as green gasoline, or high-value chemicals.

The yields on landfill waste have been improving for some time. The oldest process is combustion, which releases only about 30 percent of the 5,000-6,000 BTUs in each pound of landfill waste. Modern technologies that realize 100 gallons of ethanol per ton are realizing 4200 BTUs per pound, an efficiency imporvement of 133-180 percent.

“We see 90 gallons per dry ton, conservatively, with municipal solid waste,” said Chornet. “If we have more plastics to add hydrogen, we can  buy a little more efficiency, up to 100 gallons per ton. With improved methanol catalysts we expect to eventually see up to 130 gallons per ton. We have a research partnership with the University of Sherbrooke for R&D that is working on catalysts.”

With all the advances in waste to energy, it is surprising that more cities are not turning to it as a potential solution to a landfill crisis.

“With waste to energy, the technology wasn’t there for a long time, and it was very capital intensive,” Chornet comments. “Some tried to go too far too fast. For cities like Edmonton, though, now they don’t want to build another landfill or mass burn. With the mass burn, you don’t get that high level of chemicals – that quality and those options about what you produce – you just get electrons. And in terms of shipping MSW to another remote landfill, our prices are becoming more competitive.”

“With this announcement we expect to see more acceleration,” Chronet added. “In this market, everyone would like to be second. Now, municipalities can see that the process is permittable. We are receiving  a lot of calls.” Enerkem is standardizing its technology in 100,000 ton modules with a goal of reaching installation of 3-4 modules per year by 2013/14.

With these projects, the tipping fees are critical, plus the city’s guarantee of supply. In Edmonton’s case, after the Enerkem receive a threshold return, the city receives an undisclosed profit share. But in terms of the business model, it’s not a case of one size fits all. Some cities may opt to be hands off,  and deal in reducing tipping fees rather than taking a profit share position.”

Enerkem confirmed that there is still “good money available” for waste-to-energy projects. It would be hard to look as waste-to-energy stystems that produce drop-in fuels as anything other than the “do this first” of biofuels.

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