Brandon,
Remember Jim Coull? He joined Thermo Tech as Vice-President of Marketing and Development for the New England States.
Wonder why he left René and Gang? {;-)
Anyway, LQQK what he is doing now…
There are some interesting details here concerning Mr. Coull and IBR.
Regards,
Cayman
Food-Fertilizer Plant Scales Latest Hurdle
MICHAEL HOLTZMAN, Staff Writer
October 01, 2000
UXBRIDGE -- A proposed $7.5 million food-to-fertilizer manufacturing plant, based on the recycling of food scraps,has scaled its latest hurdle with state environmental officials.
A joint-venture partnership of Uxbridge Food Processors LLC wants to build its first of four Massachusetts plants on a 6.2-acre industrial parcel at 79 River Road, off Quaker Highway (Route 146A) and opposite the town’s wastewater treatment plant.
James M. Coull and Robert A. LaRochelle of Bio-Dynamics LLC, one of the joint-venture partners, updated their ambitious project that’s been in the pipeline since last fall when a group of professionals set up Bio-Dynamics. Based in Concord, Mass., Coull is its president.
"It’s a break-through technology. It’s a blending of two technologies," said Coull, an engineer who has spent over 25 years in the food processing construction business.
The Division of Solid Waste Managment, an arm of the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), issued a preliminary "Determination of Need for Site Assessment (DON) permit" on Sept. 8, pending a 21-day comment period.
That period ended last week. "So far we have not received any comments, but we usually wait several more days," Purna Rao, Solid Waste Management chief, said Friday.
The permit -- one step in the state and and local approval process -- says the manufacturing plantmay not adversely affect the public health and environment, must meet other state, local and federal laws and the standards of various informational requests.
Other specific conditions include obtaining DEP Air Quality and Industrial Waste Water Permits and limitations put on the amount of daily materials the plant can recycle and turn into two organic products: pellitized and liquid fertilizers for commercial use.
"This is a huge opportunity for us," said Coull, who has lined up an affiliate of National Challenge Systems Inc. in North Vancouver, Canada, to handle the collection and transportation of food surplus and Roy F. Weston, a company world renowned for waste processing systems, for the construction, technology implementation and managing of the plant.
Bio-Dynamics is not ready to reveal its financing. "There are several different financial entities very much interested in this project," LaRochelle said.
"The permits are of paramount importance," Coull added.
While searching for a food recycling product about two years ago, Coull said he discovered International Bio-Recovery Corp. in North Vancouver, Canada. Since 1994, the company, the other joint-venture partner, has used an advanced technology of heat-responsive microbes to convert food surplus into a natural fertilizer within 72 hours, Uxbrdrige Food Processors’s literature reports.
It uses the same bacteria as simple composting, but the conversion process reaches temperatures of 170 degrees, Coull said.
The key to the break-through technology, Coull said, was "putting enough air into the bio (food) masses to keep the digestion going. The more air you put in, the hotter the temperature gets," he said.
"There are huge quantities of material, and nobody came up with a way to handle it," Coull said. Typically, supermarkets pay $75 to $85 a ton to transport its spoiled food and other products, which are not separated. "We’re taking the heavy part (the food products) out of the stream for less than $60 a ton."
In Massachusetts, 600,000 tons of surplus food is generated each year, putting severe strains on municipal landfills. While products like paper, cardboard, glass and plastics are being recyled regularly, less than 7,000 tons of the surplus foods are composted. Bio-Dynamics identified an obvious resource for capturing its end product.
"They’re enthused because we’ve solved their problem," LaRochelle said of the food users. "We’re enthused because it solves our problem. Our business is fertlizer."
In addition to spending $7.5 million on a 55,000 square-foot building and cutting-edge processing equipment, the developers say the project would create 35 jobs paying an average of $35,000 and generate about $150,000 in annual taxes.
They also propose working with the University of Massachusetts -- which offered high grades last spring on its evaluation of the concept and process -- and establish a related center for sustainable agriculture here.
Moreover, the South Uxbridge site would serve as a model and headquarters for a process of food recycling into organic fertilizer that the newly formed corporation would showcase and develop nationally.
Having informally discussed their project since the spring with several selectmen and town businessmen -- to mixed acceptance -- their goals are to issue a site plan application to the Planning Board by early next month with the hope of breaking ground before the end of the year, they said.
Their aim is to be operative by the summer of 2001 after a 7-8-month construction period. The Uxbridge plant would be the first of four envisioned in the state, with others to be located north of Boston, in the Connecticut Valley near Springfield and in Boston proper.
At capacity, Uxbridge Food Processors would take up to 200 wet tons a day of slurry feedstock, transport it in vaccum-sealed tanker trucks to its plant and convert it to a maximum of 20 tons of solid fertilizer, according to permit applications.
Their pellitized 6-2-4 (nitrogen, phosphorous and potasium mixture) organic fertilizer would be sold mostly through a U.S./Canadian wholesale consortium that would determine where the product was shipped, Coull said.
Among the key criteria Coull and LaRochelle listed for obtaining a purchase and sale agreement with Savers Cooperative Bank for the land opposite Quaker Industrial Park and the sewer treatment facility and locating the project here were:
-- Being within 50 miles of major population areas, including Providence and Boston.
-- Having quick access to a major highway for transportation ease that includes limited on-off access.
-- Location within an industrial zone, so rezoning is not needed.
-- Immediate access to the sewer treatment plant to treat 10,000 gallons a day of plant discharges.
-- A distance of 22 miles to Green Airport for ease of bringing national business and government officials to the model plant/headquarters.
Last December, in order to gain credibility and widespread support,Bio-Dynamics sought an analysis of its proposal from the Massachusetts Strategic Envirotechnology Partnership (STEP).
Prepared by Thomas Flanagan of the University of Massachusetts/Boston, the introduction of the report completed June 9 states: "There is little doubt that there exists considerable opportunity to generate fertilizer for large-scale use from organic wastes through composting and other innovative treatments, such as the one reviewed in this report."
In the area of odor control -- which company officials admit will be its strongest roadblock among citizen and municipal critics -- STEP offers encouraging analysis. "The primary odor control system will be total facility containment wherein air is forced through a biofilter," the report says. "STEP’s comparison of biofilter designs indicates that biofilter can effectively manage even exceptionally challenging odors."
Bio-Dynamics said they expect their state Determination of Need (DON) permit could be issued as early as this week, putting in motion other permit applications and financing of the project. The DEP also must approve what’s called a Financial Assurance Mechanism at least 30 days before the plant would begin operating.
End of Editorial |
