TSE: NRG | OTC: ANRGD
Alter NRG sells plasma gasification solutions that convert waste-to-energy (WTE), generating synthetic fuels from municipal waste, biomass or other feedstocks. Gasification is a process that uses extremely high temperature plasma torches but it is not incineration. The technology was developed over the last few decades by Westinghouse Plasma Corporation. That business unit was spun out and then later acquired in its entirety by Alter NRG.
In December 2011 the company announced that it had signed a deal with Air Products for a $22MM gasifier to be located in Tees Valley in the UK. This is the first of five that Air Products intends to build and is representative of the type of larger deal that Alter NRG is currently pursuing. In the Fall of 2013, Air Products announced a final decision to proceed with TV2, a second plant of the same scale to be built adjacent to TV1. Subsequently Air Products has publicly discussed plans for a third plant that will be located in Scotland.
In 2014 the company announced the first plant being built by GES in China. This is a new customer in China that is building plants to take in municipal solid waste. Alter had been working with GES to plan six plants but recently learned that they now have plans for a total of fourteen plants. GES has also developed and patented a method for taking the vitrified material that is the product of gasification and spinning it into an officially-approved construction-grade insulation material. The revenues for the plant operators will be substantial and should provide a significant incentive.
In January 2014 Alter NRG announced commissioning of an ash vitrification facility for an existing incinerator by GTS in Shanghai. This event is the first sale into a new market for Alter NRG and significantly expands the size of their addressable market. This is the first time that Alter NRG has had a turnkey product in their line. The product is a turnkey bolt-on incinerator turbocharger. Incinerator operators pay high tipping fees to dispose of incinerator ash because it is a toxic hazardous waste. The "turbocharger" turns the ash into an inert vitrified material that can be used as concrete aggregate, for example. So the incinerator operator no longer produces a large amount of hazardous material but instead turns it into a product that can be sold. Also, the turbocharger enables the operator to take in hazardous and medical waste that command high tipping fees (incinerators are not hot enough to handle these) so that further offsets the installation cost. Finally the turbocharger also creates syngas which can be used or sold.
In March 2014 Cahill Energy announced that they had signed a $240MM deal to install a gasification facility in Barbados using technology from Alter NRG. The potential for plasma gasification for island nations is significant. Natural gas costs are typically very high as it is all imported and also landfill capacity is becoming a critical problem in places like Puerto Rico. Plasma gasification addresses both of those issues extremely well.
In March 2014 the company announced that studies conducted by GE showed that their turbines generate more power when running on syngas than natural gas. There is a fleet of 11,000 GE turbines operating in the field that GE considers targets for syngas replacement. In some cases, GE turbines generated up to 25% more power on syngas than natural gas. GE and Alter are developing joint marketing materials.
Highlights
Resources
Company web site
YouTube videos
Raymond James research reports
Quote for OTC listing (ANRGF)
DOE page on Alter NRG/Westinghouse Plasma
Wikipedia page on plasma gasification commercialization
Partner sites/info: Air Products - AFC Energy - Coen Company - Linde - Phoenix Energy - Plagazi - Rentech - SMS Infrastructure Ltd - Waste2Tricity - Wuhan Kaidi
Charts: Daily - Weekly - Monthly
Other Gasification Companies: Chinook Energy | Energos | Enerkem | Fulcrum Bioenergy | PHG Energy | Plasco Energy Group | Plasma Power, LLC | Recovered Energy, Inc. | PyroGenesis | Sierra Energy
Spreadsheet - Gasification Companies
Other Resources:
Cleantechnica | Hydrogen Fuel News | Gasification Technologies Council
Gasifier vessel for Tees Valley-1 being transported to site.
Aerial photo of Tees Valley 1 under construction and location of TV2 site. |
