Waste-to-energy

California energy provider testing WTE technology at Los Angeles facility

Southern California Gas Co. (SoCalGas) announced that Kore Infrastructure, a California-based renewable energy provider, has begun testing and demonstrating its carbon-negative, waste-to-energy modular system at its Los Angeles facility.

The technology is designed to divert organic waste from California landfills and convert it into carbon-negative hydrogen and renewable natural gas (RNG). These clean fuels can be used to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from industrial processes and hard-to-electrify sectors.

SoCalGas contributed $1.5 million to the project, which also received funds from the South Coast Air Quality Management District (AQMD).

Kore’s modular system uses a proprietary pyrolysis process, which heats organic waste under high temperatures in a zero-oxygen environment. This process converts the waste to a blend of gases that can be converted to carbon-negative hydrogen or RNG, along with a solid carbon char that can enhance soil quality or help decarbonize cement and steel production.

“Not only will it divert material from landfills, but the process will create clean energy sources that can be used in fuel cell vehicles and other clean-air technologies," says Ben J. Benoit, chair of the South Coast AQMD Governing Board.

“In California, transportation causes approximately 40 percent of greenhouse gas emissions,” Kore Infrastructure CEO and founder Cornelius Shields says. “We’re collaborating with waste, energy and transportation sector leaders to provide a ‘made-in-America,’ carbon-negative energy solution. Our UltraGreen hydrogen will be the fuel of the future for light-duty vehicles, heavy-duty trucks and buses.”

Kore plans to demonstrate the production of more than 99-percent-pure hydrogen suitable for fuel cell electric cars, trucks, buses and trains by the third quarter of 2022. The facility has the potential to process up to 24 tons per day of organic feedstock and produce up to 1 metric ton of carbon-negative, UltraGreen hydrogen per day.