Optimism abounds

Kristin Smith

I came away from the Renewable Energy from Waste (REW) Conference in November encouraged on many fronts about the future of the waste-to-energy (WTE) industry in North America. Several speakers over the course of the four-day event in Orlando shared successes from the mass-burn, anaerobic digestion, gasification and pyrolysis sectors.

It also is evident from the conference that government agencies, from the Department of Energy, Department of Defense and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, are interested in developing and funding waste conversion technologies. In particular, Chris Cassidy, national business renewable energy advisor, USDA, shared a number of programs that agency has to provide hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of loan guarantees and grants.

Attendees heard how regulators from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection are helping projects move forward by making permitting a smooth and deadline-driven process. On the local level, several public-private partnerships have seen their efforts pay off in West Palm Beach, Florida; Edmonton, Alberta; and Orlando, Florida, paving the way for future projects. Key players in these projects participated in panel discussions at the REW Conference.

Major corporations from a variety of industries are looking at alternative fuels and how to achieve zero-waste to landfill. MillerCoors, Cemex and Dow Packaging and Specialty Plastics are prime examples of companies looking at these technologies and moving them into mainstream practice. The REW Conference featured prominent speakers from all three organizations.

The Harvest Power Central Florida Energy Garden is an outstanding example of an ongoing public-private partnership using anaerobic digestion. The REW Conference included a panel with those parties involved with the project, including Reedy Creek District, which operates the adjacent wastewater treatment plant; Harvest Power, which owns and operates the anaerobic digestion facility that codigests wastewater from the plant with food waste; and Republic Services, which hauls the food waste from area businesses to Harvest Power.

The icing on the cake for attendees of the REW Conference was the opportunity to tour of the Harvest Power facility, which has been operating since 2013 on a three acre-site within Disney-owned property.

Knowing full well many hurdles exist in moving WTE projects forward, after hearing so many project successes and opportunities on the horizon at the REW Conference, it is difficult not to be optimistic about the future of the WTE industry.

As one panelist described landfills as “energy warehouses” and others pointed out that waste is not scarce in any part of the world and the population continues to grow, certainly the potential exists for more energy to be created from waste that cannot be recycled.