Waste Conversion

Waste-to-fuel facility set to open next spring

A facility near Martinsburg, West Virginia, designed to convert municipal solid waste (MSW) to solid fuel is set to open next spring, about a year later than originally scheduled, according to a report by Herald Mail Media. Emily Dyson, a representative of the joint venture project, Entsorga West Virginia, says that contracting issues got in the way of progress.

According to its website, Entsorga West Virginia is a joint venture between Apple Valley Waste Technologies Inc., Kearneysville, West Virginia; Entsorga Italia, Tortona, Italy; and Chemtex Global, Wilmington, North Carolina.

The facility is set to use a patented mechanical and biological treatment process and is expected to reduce 28,000 tons of greenhouse gas emissions per year, the report says.

The facility will take MSW through a contract with Apple Valley Waste, the report says. Forty to 50 percent of the material is said to be converted into an alternative fuel approved by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Entsorga also will sell the fuel pellets to a local cement plant, Argos.

Entsorga has leased 12 acres of land from Berkeley County Solid Waste Authority and will pay $70,000 annually in the first two years of the lease, the report says. The lease agreement is worth more than $3.6 million over 30 years.

The solid waste authority has been using the revenue to offset losses from the county’s recycling program. It also will receive 50 cents per ton of waste received at the waste-to-fuel facility.

CalRecycle awards organics recycling grants

The Sacramento-based California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle) has awarded $24 million in grants to help convert more of the state’s organic waste (food, green waste and wood) into renewable energy and compost.

“These latest climate investments provide a much-needed boost to California’s organic waste recycling capacity, which the state must roughly double to meet its greenhouse gas reduction and 75 percent recycling goals,” says Scott Smithline, director of CalRecycle. “These infrastructure projects will diversify our local economies, creating durable green jobs that can’t be outsourced.”

CalRecycle says it helps fund facilities in California that convert organic material into products such as compost or renewable energy because, when it is sent to landfills, organic waste decomposes and generates methane.

CalRecycle’s Organics Grant Program is part of California Climate Investments, a program that uses cap-and-trade dollars to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and benefit disadvantaged communities.

Of the $24 million allocated to CalRecycle’s Organics Grant program in 2016-17, $12 million was dedicated to anaerobic digestion (AD) projects, which turn organic waste into renewable energy and soil amendments (three awards of $4 million), and $12 million was dedicated to compost operations, $3 million of which was allocated specifically for projects in rural areas. The single largest award was $3 million, CalRecycle says.

Thirty-five eligible applicants requested $88.6 million. CalRecycle says it gave funds to the 10 highest-scoring applicants based on greenhouse gas reductions, the amount of organic material diverted, benefits to disadvantaged communities and timeline.

Among the recipients of the largest grants were:

• the Sanitation District of Los Angeles County, which received a $4 million grant to upgrade AD facilities;
• HZIU Kompogas SLO Inc., San Luis Obispo, for a new AD facility;
• Rialto Bioenergy Facility LLC, San Bernardino, for upgrades to an in-vessel digestion system; and
• the city of San Diego, which is upgrading its current windrow composting facility into a covered, aerated static pile system.