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"...Tires to Tomatoes"
Following is the article in the Rubber and Plastics News II, dated June 21, 1999, page 4.
NECX tries to take tires to tomatoes
Castle Rock, Colo. - Certain supermarket tomatoes may taste like old tires.
But with the help of two firms, burning shredded tires for energy might help a greenhouse grow firmer, riper, tastier tomatoes. Nathaniel Energy Corp. announced April 8 that it signed an agreement to use Able Tire Co. scrap tires to fuel Ripe Touch Greenhouses Inc.
Under the plan, an NECX shredder operation will receive up to 7 million tires a year from Able Tire, a tire redistributor in the Dallas area, according to an NECX news release. Able Tire will drop scrap tires 15 miles away at an NECX shredding facility in Burleson, Texas. NECX will ship the shredded tires via train to the Ripe Touch greenhouse in Calhan, Colo., said Cesar Muniz of Managerial Advisory Services Inc., an adviser to NECX. There, it will burn the shredded tires to run a seven megawatt power plant next to a 20-acre greenhouse owned by Ripe Touch. In this joint venture the facility will produce hydroponically grown tomatoes, according to the release.
NECX expects to reap more than $10 million in annual sales from the deal with Able Tire, according to the release. Burleson-based Able Tire agreed to set up its collection process to enable NECX to receive tires daily. It also agreed to pay NECX contractual tipping fees of 40 cents per passenger tire and $350 for each gigantic off-the-road tire, Muniz said.
Able Tire picks up 22,000 scrap tires per day from retailers, owner Gary Humphreys said. Only 40 percent of those will dropped off at the NECX shredder. The others are either resold or taken to other disposal units.
Not everyone is convinced the venture will do everything it promises.
"There are not 7 million tires in this region," said Michael Blumenthal, Scrap Tire Management Council executive director. "They haven't looked at all the supply and economic issues." The region is not a high scrap-tire generating area, he said.
It may take a year and a half to drop 7 million scrap tires at NECX, Humphreys said. Able Tire will boost its collection efforts as a result of the deal with NECX, Muniz said. It now can get rid of more scrap tires because it has another outlet, he said.
Able Tire won't profit directly from the agreement, but will use NECX as "another outsource for legitimate tire disposal," Humphreys said.
The Company expects to add 10 employees and three trucks to keep up with NECX's demand for scrap tires, he said.
Colorado Interstate Gas Subsidiary, Coastal Corp., has a 5-percent share of the deal. Coastal will run gas lines to fuel ignitors for NECX's Thermal Combusters.
Coastal has other greenhouse projects with NECX in mind. According to NECX CEO Stan Abrams, the firms may even power greenhouses in Wyoming.
Any leftover energy from the combusters will be sold to local utility companies, Muniz said.
Abrams and his associates began developing Thermal Combusters in 1981, and the technology has since been patented. The two-stage process creates gas, then burns it to produce steam and then energy, according to Abrams. A typical Thermal Combusters power plant will produce seven to 10 megawatts of power. "We're not interested in anything more than that," he said.
NECX's patented heat exchanger systems separates the Thermal Combuster from other combusters, according to the company. Outside air is drawn into the heat exchanger and the air becomes superheated. Then, carburetion swirls the air and gases created by the combustion process together. The gases burn at temperatures of about 4500 degrees F. The Company claims the Thermal Combuster can be retro-fitted to existing boilers. They also attest the Thermal Combust is a clean process.
In addition, NECX can recycle all other tire components, including steel, rayon and nylon according to Muniz.
"It's like a pig, you don't waste anything," he said. NECX may sell carbon black left from the combusters to the tire and cosmetics industry.
When the facilities are running at full capacity, NECX can make $378,000 a week on tipping fees alone, Muniz said. That breaks down to a maximum of 70,000 passenger and light truck tires and 1,000 OTR tires NECX can process weekly. Abrams expects Ripe Touch's greenhouse burner to incinerate 3 million shredded tires per year.
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