By IAN ROSS
Today, no one wants new landfills in their backyard. And governments everywhere want municipalities to come up with their own solutions to reduce waste streams.
"Everyone recognizes when you throw all that material into a large hole, it's only a matter of time before you start having seepage," says Ernie Dueck, Enquest Power's vice-president of operating and engineering. "It's got all sorts of noxious vapours generated from waste material inside that fence."
Modern engineered landfills are designed not to leak, but eventually they all do.
For four years, Enquest Power has been working on a waste-to-energy gasification technology to produce syngas in Sault Ste. Marie that's attracted interest from visiting groups across North America.
Beginning Jan. 21, the Fonthill company has a provincial certificate of approval for a one-year demonstration window to prove out its stream reformation technology at its 2,000-square-foot pilot plant at the city's landfill site.
The components of the steam reformation unit have stencilled labels to educate visitors from the provincial environment ministry and delegations that have arrived from Toronto, Boston and Chicago.
All are interested in the technology with the aim of acquiring commercial versions of this plant in their communities, says Dueck.
"We believe once we demonstrate how well it works we can use it (the plant) as an ongoing technology development and demonstration plant and let people come to show them what we do."
Dueck, who helped designed the plant, says the unit is getting close to running at optimum level.
The potential order book for a commercial plant looks healthy. "We're working with a number of people that have come through," says Dueck. "We're very close to having several customers signed up."
If viable, the Sault could have the first operating plant providing energy to the Ontario power grid, pending an environmental assessment process.
The City of Sault Ste. Marie, which has been very robust in its support for Enquest, has about 10 years life in its landfill. Its staff are exploring whether to expand the landfill, find a new site, ship garbage out of town or invest in this new waste-to-energy technology.
It's part of a community plan to become an international leader in sustainable development through recycling initiatives, green fuel production, design-construction practices and post-secondary programming.
Syngas can be used to produce steam for electricity turbines which can be used to power machines and vehicles.
The steam reformation process has roots dating back more than a century.
Enquest's leading edge gasification process uses indirect heating that involves no combustion. Unlike incineration, the waste material heated inside a rotary kiln never comes in contact with a flame.
Organic matter, like curbside garbage, is fed into the kiln and heated on the outside up to 900 C. Inside the kiln, it's a nearly an oxygen deficient environment.
At the Sault demo plant, natural gas fires up the machine. After that, the system is designed so about 20 per cent of the syngas generated is looped back to heat up the kiln.
Until Enquest must validate to the Ministry of environment that the syngas they generate can be fed into a turbine to generate power. All the captured gas at Sault plant is scrubbed, filtered clean, then flared up a stack.
Inside, the Sault plant is divided into a waste room (where the garbage truck deposits the refuse) and a clean room, where the machinery sits.
Garbage is shredded and run through magnetic separators which picks up aluminum, gold, copper and other valuable material that can be sold.
Other residuals are inert and come out like course sand pebbles which can be used as construction filler material.
What remains is sent through an extruder, broken up into course material, and emerges in a fibrous tube. Looking very much the size of a fire log, it's pushed into the kiln. Some water is added, heat is applied and the tumbling material starts to gasify.
Afterwards the syngas is scrubbed and filtered of any residual particulate or metal vapour like mercury and cadmium that come from batteries.
There's no odour emissions. A solution of natural citrus ingredients is sprayed to neutralize any smell.
With waste-to-energy technologies like these under the watchful eye of the Ontario Ministry of Environment, it's all designed to leave no emission or harmful residuals, says Dueck.
"We have to, to make it a commercial venture."
Dueck says it's possible that future gasification units may accept feedstock from medical and farm waste, forest biomass, paper and municipal sludge.
