gasification

Mississippi to open trash-to-ethanol plant

Rather than stay in the ground, trash from the Three Rivers Landfill in Ponotoc, Miss., will be turned into ethanol.

Montreal-based Enerkem on Thursday announced plans to produce 20 million gallons a year of ethanol from waste at the Mississippi landfill in a project valued at $250 million.

The "feedstock" for the ethanol will be municipal solid waste, as well as wood residues from forest and agricultural activities, according to Enerkem.

The company's process can sort household trash, diverting material that can be recycled and processing the rest into ethanol, a liquid fuel blended with gasoline.

The … Read more

Cleaner trash-to-energy tech hits the ground

BOSTON--To many communities, trash-to-energy means burning garbage. But a handful of companies say they are close to bringing cleaner technology to market for making electricity or ethanol from waste.

At a panel discussion on waste-to-energy at the AlwaysOn GoingGreen East conference here on Tuesday, representatives from four companies detailed their plans to use gasification to convert waste products to usable energy. Some products are ready to be deployed more widely while others are still in the pilot testing phase.

The promise of using municipal solid trash or other waste products for useful energy is tantalizing: it's a renewable resource … Read more

Turn trash into energy in your office parking lot

When a school or office building thinks about distributed energy, it usually means solar panels propped up on a roof.

A small company called IST Energy has another vision: it's developed a shipping container-size contraption that turns your building's trash into electricity and heat. The company is expected to unveil the unit, called the Green Energy Machine (GEM), on Monday.

The idea behind the GEM is to offset a building's energy use while dramatically cutting trash disposal fees. The cost of trash removal can vary greatly, but a university or office park with a number of buildings … Read more

Waste-to-energy firm Ze-gen piles up cash

Updated at 3:00 p.m. PT to correct reference to synthetic gas.

Waste-to-energy firm Ze-Gen said Tuesday that it has raised money to further develop and commercialize its technology for converting municipal solid waste to electricity.

The company announced a series B round of $20 million that was led by a division of the Oman-based conglomerate Omar Zawawi Establishment.

There are a handful of firms developing different processes for converting municipal solid waste into usable energy. There are landfills that capture methane gas, which can be burned for electricity. Energy from incinerated trash can be used, too, but it … Read more

Biomass gasification plant set for Massachusetts

Update: This article has been update to clarify that the Massachusetts plant will use biomass as well as coal and petroleum coke as feedstocks to make natural gas.

GreatPoint Energy announced plans Thursday to build a plant to produce natural gas from biomass, coal and petroleum coke in its home state of Massachusetts.

The facility, which is expected to be finished in one year, will be located in Brayton Point at the research and development center of energy utility Dominion.

Massachusetts Gov. Duval Patrick was set to speak at a ceremony to announce the $25 million investment, which is benefiting … Read more