Trash-to-ethanol tech could be high-risk venture

A national garbage processing and waste-to-energy consultant said Lake County made the right move removing taxpayer ownership from a trash-to-ethanol plan predicated on commercially unproven technology.

Bob Brickner, vice president and part owner of consulting firm Gershman, Brickner & Bratton Inc., said his company has deemed as high risk a key piece of the technology -- known as gasification -- that would be used at the planned Lake County plant to transform carbon-based trash into ethanol fuel.

Brickner's Virginia-based firm advises government agencies and companies across the country on solid waste processing and waste-to-energy projects.

In a recent analysis published in December's edition of WasteAdvantage Magazine, the firm noted that gasification -- which uses heat, steam and oxygen to transform carbon-based waste into a gas -- poses a high business risk because of "limited operating experience" in the private sector and questions surrounding whether it can operate on a large commercial scale.

Current use of gasification for waste-to-energy projects exists only at small pilot plants, Brickner's firm notes in its analysis.

"It sounds like on the part of ownership, you (Lake County) made the right move taking public ownership out," Brickner said.

Under a 2008 contract with Evansville-based Powers Energy of America, the Lake County Solid Waste Management District -- and, thereby, county taxpayers -- were supposed to own the future facility to be built and operated by Powers. But after months of controversy and debate, the waste district board recently removed the public ownership clause amid fears taxpayers would be liable for any plant mishaps.

"A lot of waste-to-energy people are interested in gasification right now," Brickner said. "Our company does not play favorites in terms of the various waste-to-energy technologies out there."

But Brickner said government agencies seeking waste-to-energy projects and partnerships need to weigh all the risks.

Critics of Lake County's trash-to-ethanol project have said the plan is fraught with unanswered questions, including how the planned Schneider facility will process thousands of tons of trash per day when a pilot plan in Arkansas processes a small fraction of that amount.

Brickner said those concerns are valid, as there are no large-scale operations of this sort operating commercially that can be used as models of success or failure.

Powers Energy of America, which has contracted with the Lake County Solid Waste Management District to build and operate the Schneider trash-to-ethanol plant, has said it has a plan to ensure the operation's larger scale will work properly. And waste district officials have said they have no concerns about the difference in size between the pilot plant and the proposed Schneider facility.

Powers plans to use technology from chemical company INEOS, which operates the Arkansas pilot plant and is attempting to build a trash-to-ethanol plant in Florida.

Powers owner Earl Powers did not respond Friday to Times inquiries for comment regarding the analysis of Brickner's firm.

Powers and solid waste district officials also have refused to disclose who -- if anyone -- is financing the project.

More than two years after the contract was signed between Powers and the county, the project has yet to secure any environmental permits or break ground on the planned site.

source: nwitimes