Plant would turn waste to ethanol in Holland

Holland, MI — From the dump to powering your toaster in the morning — a company is proposing to turn waste into energy with a plant in Holland.

Renewable Energy Technologies LLC wants to retrofit an empty factory on 40th Street to turn sugar- and alcohol-based waste into ethanol.

“Instead of taking it to the dump or throwing it down the drain, we’ll take it to us. We’re going to take it (and) do something good with it,” said Ken Schewe, senior vice president.

Something such as recalled cereal or waste from juice or perfume production could be turned into ethanol at the former Big Dutchman facility at 694 E. 40th St.

The company goes before Holland’s Zoning Board of Appeals tonight. The city requires special use permits for businesses that could produce “volatile or odoriferous materials.”

RET could sell the ethanol on the commodities market for use as E85 gasoline or E10 — regular, unleaded gas in Michigan. It could also sell the ethanol directly to organizations, something that could help to meet green goals.

The company would initially have eight to 12 employees, but could soon employ more than 50 people, Schewe said.

A $500,000 U.S. Department of Agriculture grant will help build and operate the “best practices” renewable energy facility to process sugar- and alcohol-based waste into as much as 2.2 million gallons of fuel-grade ethanol. RET will also convert its own waste into electricity or steam using anaerobic digesters.

The retrofitted 95,000-square-foot plant could be online in six months to a year, Schewe said.

In case the Holland site doesn’t work out, the company is also exploring an alternate site in St. Joseph Township.

“The use of biomass has the potential to make the state more self-sufficient in energy production and could conceivably be a source of economic growth for the state,” according to a Michigan State University white paper out this month, “Biomass as an Energy Resource for Michigan.”

Creating energy from biomass has hurdles to cross. The consistent quality of waste material used and the cost of creating energy from it are among them, the paper states.

“If some technical issues can be addressed biomass could play a role as a feedstock for energy production,” according to the white paper.

It lists municipal solid waste facilities as another potential source of biomass that could be converted into energy or heat.
RET is meeting with the Holland Board of Public Works to discuss the possibility of using solid waste from the wastewater treatment plant that is now trucked away and spread on fields, Schewe said.

“The ultimate goal is, let’s keep this out of landfills and put this to use. It’s an energy source that’s not being used,” he said. “It’s one of those industries that’s going to continuously evolve.”

The company hopes to work with local companies, organizations and municipalities, Schewe said.

source: hollandsentinel