The world's best thinkers on energy and climate
Norway and Sweden believe that recycling waste to fuel is an environmentally friendly way to dispose trash and a great way to generate energy in the process. Sweden, for instance, has now officially run out of garbage. The country now imports as much as 700,000 tons of trash each year to meet the growing capacity of their plants. Norway, on the other hand, has already started experimenting with biogas-fueled public transport. One kilogram of food … [Read more...]
At the end of 2015, the United States had 71 waste-to-energy (WTE) plants that generated electricity in 20 U.S. states, with a total generating capacity of 2.3 gigawatts. Florida contains more than one-fifth of the nation's WTE electricity generation capacity, and in 2015, Florida's Palm Beach Renewable Energy Facility Number 2 became the first new WTE plant to come online since 1995 and the largest single WTE electricity generator in the United … [Read more...]
This job is not for those with a weak stomach. The man in the picture below is Danny Brackley, a sewer flusher. He is shoveling out a “fatberg” from under Leicester Square.Image Credit: Thames WaterOil and fat accumulating under the streets of London is apparently causing a bit of an issue. However, the city is going to burn these fatbergs in order to create electricity — about 130 GWh of electricity per year. A power station at Beckton … [Read more...]
Oslo, Norway is known for many different characteristics; being Norway’s government capital, for one, along with being the economic hub for trade and home to over 1.4 million citizens. One thing most people don’t know about Oslo however, is how much they really want your garbage.“I’d like to take some [garbage] from the United States…sea transport is cheap,” said Pal Mikkelsen, mechanical engineer and managing director of Oslo’s … [Read more...]
A landfill in Kearny NJ that converts methane gas from decomposing trash into electricity. (AP Photo)The United States currently generates 390 million tons of trash per year, or 7 pounds per person per day. Municipal solid waste, or MSW, commonly known as garbage, gets picked up from homes and businesses on a weekly basis and is usually sent straight to a landfill.At the landfill, a hole is dug in the ground and then lined with a man-made liner. … [Read more...]
I am still working on the weekly news roundup but this news about waste-to-energy keep popping up on my email inbox so we might as well take a brief look and see what's going on in this sector.I have written an article on ICIS Chemical Business about the waste plastic-to-energy market last year where Dow Chemical is one of the companies looking into the PTF (plastic-to-fuel) technology. Some of the companies involved in this field include Agilyx. … [Read more...]
Between three and five terawatt-hours of energy could be supplied by anaerobic digestion by 2020, according to the Government's new Anaerobic Digestion Strategy and Action Plan.The Plan contains guidance on the cost and benefits of AD for developers and local authorities, and tactics for training and developing markets for the biogas and fertilisers produced by the technology.″Getting rubbish and waste rot in landfill is madness when we can use … [Read more...]
After five years of practical experience the time has come for Imtech, one of the leading companies for technical building equipment in Germany, to offer a promising procedure for the treatment of residual household waste to the international market: At the exhibition area “Metropolitan Solutions” at the Hanover Fair in Germany, Imtech presented its Maximum Yield Technology (MYT), which gains quality-assured fuels, biogas, minerals and metals … [Read more...]
Last month I had a phone interview with James Peret, the inventor of the VegaWatt. In the first part of the audio interview we talked about their ideal customers and industry landscape. Currently, the VegaWatt has a little to no competition in the restaurant industry or even in the micro waste to power industry. Any restaurant that makes more then 30 gallons of grease per month is a perfect customer and there are no other current or feasible more … [Read more...]
Kudos to Vincent Chornet. The president, CEO and co-founder of Montreal-based Enerkem (along with his father, Esteban) has in just a few years turned his company into a leading player in the emerging waste-to-fuel market. Today, Enerkem gained even more momentum, announcing it had secured $53.8 million in venture financing in a round that included Houston-based Waste Management, the continent’s top waste-management firm. Enerkem … [Read more...]
Previously, this blog relayed word from the Biopact team about a thermoelectric power plant to be built in Sao Desiderio in the state of Bahia in northeastern Brazil. Dedini, an industrial company better known for building sugar mills and distilleries, will use elephant grass as the feedstock rather than bagasse, the waste biomass from sugar cane. Burning biomass rather than coal means less carbon emissions, plus it avoids the emissions from the … [Read more...]
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