A southern Ontario green technology company is poised to begin construction of a large waste-to-energy gasification plant in Sault Ste. Marie to handle all of the city's household garbage. The Elementa Group Inc.
A southern Ontario green technology company is poised to begin construction of a large waste-to-energy gasification plant in Sault Ste. Marie to handle all of the city's household garbage.
The Elementa Group Inc. has inked a 20-year deal with the city to re-route its garbage trucks away from the Fifth Line landfill to a new 20,000-square-foot plant on a west-end industrial property.
Elementa's vice-president of business development Michael Wozny describes it as a commercial demonstration plant.
"It's the first time in Canada where all curbside waste will be diverted away from the landfill site to a facility like ours," he said.
The proposed $30.6-million building represents a "jumping-off project" for the St. Catharines-based company to eventually roll out similar or larger plants for cities around the world.
There's been no shortage of interest in the clean technology that takes landfill waste and converts into synthetic gas (syngas), which can be used for power generation.
Since Elementa (formerly known as EnQuest Power Corp.) set up a small pilot plant at the Sault Ste. Marie city dump in 2007 to test its steam reformation technology, there's been a constant parade of international delegations visiting the site.
The company has hosted tour groups from almost a dozen countries, including Slovakia, United Arab Emirates, Spain, Brazil and the U.S.
Wozny has witnessed firsthand Elementa's evolution and the potential of its non-incineration system for the last four years while serving as executive director of the Sault Ste. Marie Economic Development Corporation.
He made the leap to Elementa last summer and now works out of the company's downtown office.
"I was involved from the ground up and I could see where it was going,” said Wozny. “They were getting bigger and said they could use some help."
In early March, the company held a public open house as part of the permitting process for their provincial environmental assessment.
If all continues to go well, plant construction starts later this spring with operations beginning in the spring or summer of 2011.
It will create 20 jobs for labourers, equipment operators, skilled technicians and engineers.
"It's more of a recycling centre than anything else," said Wozny.
On an M-3-zoned industrial property next to Flakeboard Company Ltd., garbage trucks will unload directly into a hopper at the front end of the process.
The building will be under negative pressure to keep odors to a minimum.
The plant will take in 35,000 tonnes annually of household waste in one end and produce as much as six megawatts of power generated from syngas at other end.
Elementa is finalizing the details on a power purchase agreement with the province.
There is also the possibility of methanol production. Other residual byproducts include a small amount of ash, which can be used as aggregate in cement and some recoverable metals which are separated at the beginning of the process.
The municipality will pay the company a $60 per tonne tipping fee for residential and any carbon-based commercial and institutional waste.
Older garbage could be mined, but Wozny said that would require some cleaning since settled waste is usually mixed with gravel.
Despite interest from potential customers, the company is not yet at the order-taking stage and won't be until the full-scale plant is operating.
The company has been cautious about rushing to market. Brothers and co-founders Jayson and Leonard Zwierschke have spent the last decade fine-tuning the process and getting third-party verification.
"Everything's in order,” said Wozny. “We're ready to scale it up.”
Although the property has rail access, the company won't be accepting garbage from outside the Sault. Elementa's big picture plans are to strategically place these facilities where communities need them.
Wozny said the privately-owned company, which includes former Algoma Steel CEO Denis Turcotte as an investor and advisor, has long-term plans to go public.
Elementa is the kind of green technology company that the City of Sault Ste. Marie has been working to attract as part of its economic diversification strategy.
In branding itself as Canada's alternative energy capital, the city has a lot to crow about with Brookfield Power's Prince Wind Energy Farm on Lake Superior, the pending construction of Ellsin Environmental's tire recycling plant and the last year's commissioning of a power co-generation facility at Essar Steel Algoma.
Sault Ste. Marie's economic development CEO Bruce Strapp said what people are now seeing is the "tip of the iceberg" resulting from years of internal city discussions in developing partnerships and painstakingly working through agreements.
This year, Pod Generating Group and Starwood Energy Group Global are partnering to build one of Canada's largest solar energy farms on the city's west end. The first two phases of the $100-million project with a combined 20 megawatts will be operational later this year, with long-range plans for 40 megawatts more.
But the biggest development news is a solar panel factory that's expected to quickly set up shop and go into production this summer.
It's lead by a former Tenarus Tubes and Essar Steel Algoma senior manager, who is behind the construction of an 17,500-square-foot plant on Allen's Side Road.
Martin Pochtaruk, president of Heliene Canada Inc., would not consent to an interview with Northern Ontario Business, saying he has been told to say nothing to local media until a provincial government funding announcement is made.
But in an expansive interview with Photovoltaic International, an on-line solar industry publication, Pochtaruk said training for the plant's 40 employees begins in August with production starting up by month's end or early September.
The first modules will be shipped to customers in Ontario and U.S. Midwest begins in late August or September.
The plant is the result of an alliance between a group of Sault businessmen and Helios Energy of Spain (Heliene Europe).
The facility will be located on a 14.5 acres of vacant land, leased to the company by McRain Developments Inc. Terry Rainone, one of the McRain shareholders, said the plant is not affiliated with the Pod solar farm.
The Heliene plan is to move into a finished building by early July while equipment is being tested in Barcelona. Final installation will be during the first week of August.
Pochtaruk said the production line at the automated facility will initially make multi- and monocrystalline silicon-based modules of 60 to 72 cells, capable of power outputs of 300 watts. Testing and certification will be done before the plant is ready.
The plant will start with production capacity of 30 megawatts annually.
"The plant is modular and can easily be expanded up to 80 megawatts," said Pochtaruk.
The manufacturing line will be computer-controlled and managed with touch screens. Eight employees will work per shift when in operation.
No investment figures were cited for the plant.
Pochtaruk said Ontario's generous feed-in-tariff program and the government subsidies offered through the Green Energy Act makes Ontario the best place to develop the plant.
"From a logistics point of view, Sault Ste. Marie is centrally located to ship products throughout Canada and the United States."
www.heliene.cawww.elementagroup.com
