Fuel from Waste: A Lucrative Business?

If the world produces waste at the same annual rate as the United States – about 220 million tons, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency – the global waste production is somewhere near 4 trillion tons per year.

Biofuel from feedstocks such as corn and grain disrupt supply and
demand dynamics of the world grain markets. The production of ethanol, biodiesel or other biofuels is veering toward the next big resource: waste. Some governments and companies are well on their way to capitalizing on this trend.

Expanding alternative fuels
“An expanded market for alternative fuels will have to be based on alternative feedstocks, of which, cellulosic waste streams provide the greatest promise,” said Necy Sumait, senior vice president and director of BlueFire Ethanol.

The company is based in Irvine, California, and specializes in the production of ethanol from cellulose derived from garbage and green waste generated by municipal sources.
“We believe that increasing supplies from cellulosic feedstock will begin to happen within the next couple of years from our production and others,” she said.

Using its own funding, the team established a pilot facility operated for more than 5 years in southern California in the mid- and late 1990s. The facility was developed and operated to perfect the patent applications as well as test and verify various equipment for use in the concentrated acid hydrolysis process. The facility used a variety of cellulosic feedstocks from various regions worldwide.

“BlueFire is currently completing the permitting efforts for the construction of a 3 million-gal-per-year (11.4 billion L) cellulosic ethanol facility in northern Los Angeles County,” Sumait said. “In addition, preliminary development has begun on another site in southern California that will be receiving a $40 million award from the U.S. Department of Energy [DOE] under its Biorefinery Commercialization Program authorized by the 2005 Energy Bill.”

Lacking U.S. federal policy?
Many critics believe federal policy is lacking with regard to alternative fuel production in the United States; however, some say federal policy is emerging. Sumait said policies must encourage a sustainable market for renewable fuels and provide incentives for the construction of production facilities.

“The 2007 Energy Bill creates a clear and positive signal for a renewable fuels market that should provide the encouragement for the development of production facilities,” she said. “Historically, federal funding has been limited and widely distributed such that each award was not significant enough to create meaningful results. For the first time in the area of alternative fuel production, significant funding awards authorized in the 2005 Energy Bill were made that could create meaningful progress in accelerating the construction of alternative fuel production facilities.”

Dr. Ann Wilkie, a research associate and professor of environmental microbiology at the University of Florida, feels federal policy should provide incentives for a range of fuel alternatives, as well as greater support for efficiency and conservation initiatives, rather than supporting a single alternative, as demonstrated by current emphasis on ethanol.

“With a few notable exceptions, local governments have been slow to pursue alternative energy initiatives, and the current economic situation limits their ability to do so without significant federal support,” she said.

Wilkie said government policy is important, as the bend to alt-ernative fuels should provide great economic stimulus.

“Renewable energy production can be largely based on locally produced or available feedstocks, thereby creating jobs and strengthening local economies,” she said. “New jobs can be created in feedstock production and processing, equipment manufacturing, facilities construction, fuel production and distribution.”

The pending Farm Bill provides tax and financial incentives that could jumpstart the industry. If the bipartisan support for cellulosic ethanol holds true and those provisions pass, the industry will be on its way to delivering the benefits of renewable fuels from existing feedstock resources.

The advent of recycled resources
The production of biodiesel on a worldwide basis is also gaining attention. Roy Beckford, an agriculture and natural resources agent with the University of Florida, said there were 148 biodiesel refineries operating in the United States with an annual production of 1.39 billion gal (5.2 million L) of biodiesel in mid-2007. According to the National Biodiesel Board, 96 additional companies had plants under construction at that time. The average annual production of U.S.-based biodiesel plants is 9.4 million gal (35.6 million L). Biodiesel is commonly produced from feedstocks; however, there are efforts under way to grow feedstocks to be used for alternative fuel production. The University of Florida is developing Jatropha trees as a produced feedstock for biodiesel as is India. Jatropha trees can be grown in wasteland and produce a vegetable oil that may be used to produce biodiesel.

Beckford said the local government of Lee County, Florida plans to construct a bio-refinery for the recovery of waste oils from restaurants, schools and hospitals as well as grease for the production of biodiesel.

Globally, waste oils are being used on a larger scale to produce biodiesel. China Clean Energy Inc., based in Fuqing City, China, specializes in the production of biodiesel fuel and specialty chemicals from organic waste oils. Its patented technologies allow it to produce and export this fuel in high volumes.

“Unlike our counterparts in other countries, China Clean Energy is using waste materials such as recycled cooking oil [yellow grease], waste cotton seed oil and waste rapeseed oil as our feedstocks for biodiesel and specialty chemicals,” said Tai-ming Ou, the company’s chief executive officer. “We have our own proprietary technologies to process these waste materials into biodiesel and specialty chemicals. Currently, we produce 11,000 tons of biodiesel and 18,000 tons of specialty chemicals per year. The biodiesel is sold as diesel fuel to local gas stations.”

In West Berlin, New Jersey, the Global Resources Corp. has championed technology that may be a boon to using trash to produce ethanol and hydrocarbon fuel. These resources include conventional trash as well as landfill trash that has been in the ground for years.

The technology enables the extraction of deeply rooted oil or bituminous deposits from capped-off oil wells and can convert shale rock to coal, gas or crude. It is also able to extract fuel from drill cuttings, old tires, plastic and other waste materials found in landfills and leaves them clean.

For Global Resources, its recognition began when a DOE report titled Secure Fuels from Domestic Resources was released in June 2007. The report identified 27 companies that pioneered technology indicating a unique way of turning domestic resources into useful energy, said Jay Gill, the company’s director of business development.

The report caught the eye of others in the report that included major energy companies. Since then, the phone has been ringing off the hook, he said.

The technology uses a specific frequency of microwave technology applied to products such as old tires, plastic and trash that contains a carbon structure. The microwaves are able to produce hydrocarbon fuel in the absence of oxygen.

Sumait said new methods of producing alternative fuels such as ethanol would also result in reduction of greenhouse gas emissions as waste is diverted from decomposition. By using waste, municipalities can participate in the industry as a guarantor of feedstock supplies without any capital outlay or they can build and own production facilities themselves.

For the latter, capital outlays will depend on the particular project parameters,” Sumait said. “The buzz about cellulosic ethanol is not only for the environmental and social benefits it provides, but also because it can be a very lucrative business under the right conditions.”n

Jim Romeo is a freelance writer based in Chesapeake, Virginia, who focuses on business and technology. He is a mechanical engineer by background and education, and holds an MBA from New York's Columbia University.