“During the past two years, we have looked at more than 200 waste conversion technologies and we believe this technology warrants further testing as part of our efforts to develop clean, renewable energy solutions,” said Covanta VP-business development Steven Weber.
“If successful, this technology will complement our core Energy from Waste business, extending the line of products and services which we offer customers to provide clean, renewable energy.”
As Weber explained in an interview with Hart Energy Publishing, the pilot project aims to produce U.S. EPA-quality highway diesel fuel.
That means meeting EPA’s 15-ppm sulfur limit for highway ultra-low sulfur diesel (ULSD) fuel. If testing shows that extra desulfurization equipment would need to be added following the catalytic conversion of RDF, then a special module would be added, Weber explained to us.
Covanta decided the technology warranted a closer look given the enormous amount of trash that is land-filled in the U.S. every year – some 250 million tons.
Even if more aggressive recycling and re-use schemes were to cut the amount of U.S. trash available for conversion by half, the energy-production potential would still be significant, he said.
Given that Covanta already has air and waste permits for its existing RDF power-plant facility – and given that the diesel demonstration plant would only yield a slight amount of incremental air emissions – environmental permitting for the project is less challenging than at other locations, Weber pointed out. Effectively, incremental emissions would be “offset by the benefit of net reductions in greenhouse gas emissions,” he explained.
If the demonstration proves successful, then Covanta aims to obtain EPA registration for the diesel fuel.
Asked about production cost, Weber said: “This has great potential, but we still have many hurdles to clear before we will know if it is commercially viable.”
If studies show the fuel can indeed be economically competitive, and if the process proves itself as robust – with high plant availability – then “we’re looking at a commercial roll-out at both our existing plants and greenfield projects,” he said.
Such plants potentially could tap a variety of feeds beyond MSW, including waste-oils, biomass, construction & demolition waste, logging residues, yard waste and “just about anything with hydrogen and carbon in it,” he said.
Eventually, that might include purpose-grown, non-food energy crops such as switchgrass, jatropha, or byproducts such as corn stover, he pointed out. – Jack Peckham
–Jack Peckham
excerpt from:
worldfuels.com
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Note: It took over 2 years before Covanta selected Alphakat - GEYI and it has been over 3 years since then even while the process continues to advance which just goes to show that it is a very time consuming process to get the "big boys" to look at and test a revolutionary new system. |
