Green Tech

A tanker carrying liquefied natural gas that was made from harvesting the naturally occurring gas produced from the decomposition of organic trash.

(Credit: The Linde Group)

Trash collection giant Waste Management and the Linde Group petroleum engineering firm have partnered to create a plant that makes liquefied natural gas (LNG) from landfill gas, both companies announced this week.

Linde designed and operates the plant which is located close to Waste Management's Altamont Landfill near Livermore, Calif.

"The opening of the world's largest landfill-gas-to-LNG plant right here in California is a milestone and a testament to our commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Now that the technology has been proven, we look forward to seeing its adoption spread so more vehicles can run on garbage," Linda Adams, secretary of the California Environmental Protection Agency, said in a statement.

Contrary to what might be inferred from Adams' enthusiastic sound bite, the project is not the utopistic dream of incinerating any old trash in a DeLorean for fuel, nor has either company claimed this. What the project does show is an idea that reduces pollution in two ways. The renewable source for fuel is also a naturally occurring gas that would have otherwise released itself into the atmosphere.

Waste Management collects the gas that is produced from the naturally occurring decomposition of organic trash in its Livermore landfill. The Linde plant then purifies and processes that gas into LNG. The LNG is then used to fuel some of Waste Management's fleet for collecting trash and recycling. Those vehicles, of course, having been slightly modified so that they can run on LNG.

While the plant has only produced about 200,000 gallons since it started operating in September, it has the capacity to eventually produce 13,000 gallons a day or 4 million gallons a year. That would be enough to cover the fuel needs of 300 Waste Management vehicles used for garbage and recycling collection, and save about 30,000 tons of emissions per year, according to company statistics.

This is not the municipal collection giant's first foray into trash-to-energy tech. Waste Management has been distributing solar-powered trash compactors and investing in various projects geared at converting waste in usable energy in several different forms.

It's a gas: the tank for preparing onion juice to be turned into biogas

(Credit: Gills Onions)

Bill and Steve Gill have gone from onion farmers to power producers.

Their company, Gills Onions of Southern California, on Friday will take the wraps off a system that converts up to 300,000 pounds a day of agriculture waste into electricity. At an event at its facility, Gills Onions will receive a check for $2.7 million from SoCal Gas, which offers incentives to customers that reduce natural gas consumption through on-site generation.

One of the main components of the system is an anaerobic digester that converts treated onion plant waste into biogas. That gas is then conditioned and turned into methane, the main component of natural gas. Then the natural gas is fed into a 600-kilowatt fuel cell from Fuel Cell Energy to make electricity.

Gills Onions estimates that the $9.5 million project will have a six-year investment pay back. Among the financial benefits are reducing its electricity bill by $700,000 a year and $400,000 annual savings from handling onion wastes, which used to be spread on their land. The project also received $499,000 from a state waste-to-energy research program.

The technologies to do this sort of waste-to-energy system have been available for some time. But the project, called the Advanced Energy Recovery System, required a group of engineers to assemble and test the pieces as a system based on onion wastes. An important breakthrough in the project was finding a fuel cell that can make electricity from natural gas.

"Many of the things we did took a leap of faith, since nobody knew anything about onion gas," said Steve Gill in the company newsletter.

The combination of products can generate electricity at any farms that generate a large amount of agricultural waste or at waste-water treatment facilities, said SoCal Gas Vice President Hal Snyder, who heads up the utility's research and development. "Any facility that ends up with a bioproduct that an anaerobic digester can work with would work," he said.

A fuel cell from Fuel Cell Energy that can convert methane into electricity.

(Credit: Gills Onions)

SoCal Gas is looking at other ways to generate biogas, including collecting "green waste" from homes and dairy farms. Eventually, methane produced at customers' premises could be fed into SoCal Gas' pipeline.

From an economic point of view, the technology is still relatively immature and requires a hefty up-front investment. But the general direction on cost is favorable, particularly when there are financial incentives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, Snyder said.

In addition to using its waste for energy, Gills Onions forecasts that it will eliminate the equivalent of 30,000 tons of carbon dioxide per year.

Updated at 8:20 a.m. PT with corrected figure for the amount of onion waste generated per day.

Greenpeace released its latest Guide to Greener Electronics on Wednesday, revealing that promises aren't always kept.

The Greenpeace guide, which started in 2006, ranks the top 17 PC, cell phone, TV, and gaming console manufacturers based on their policies regarding e-waste, climate change, and use of toxic chemicals.

Hewlett-Packard, Dell, and Lenovo all dropped in the rankings for failing to live up to public promises to eliminate polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and brominated flame retardants (BFRs) from their computers by the end of 2009, according to Greenpeace.

While 2009 isn't over yet, Greenpeace noted that the companies have reset their clocks. HP (14th place) formally pushed back its phase-out of the chemicals to 2011. Dell (13th place) will fail to meet the 2009 deadline, but has offered no new timeline. Lenovo (down from 14th to 16th place) changed to a 2010 deadline, and Greenpeace claimed it has information that even that deadline will be dropped.

In conjunction with the release, members of the group protested at HP's Beijing facilities last week.

Apple, meanwhile, dropped to 11th place from 9th. Greenpeace gave the Mac maker kudos for its success in making products completely BFR-free and "virtually free of PVC," as well as its green computer campaign. But Apple was scolded for using "unreasonably high threshold limits for BFRs and PVC in products that are allegedly PVC-/BFR-free." As experts have noted, since there is currently no widespread standard for reporting on many environmental and carbon footprint issues, companies have been struggling to determine their own guidelines. Apparently, Greenpeace didn't like the ones it saw Apple using for this category.

Microsoft remained in 15th place, still admonished by Greenpeace for not having a better customer e-waste return policy.

Samsung garnered 2nd for succeeding in producing PVC-free LCD TVs and lowering the overall amount of toxins in its other products by significant amounts. Sony Ericsson moved up from 5th place to 3rd for improving its energy efficiency.

Last place? Still Nintendo, though Greenpeace gave the Wii maker points for switching to PVC-free internal wiring in their gaming consoles.

First place continues to be the province of Nokia, which remains the greenest company in the eyes of Greenpeace, notably for the success of its take-back program for used phones.

While many companies have gotten serious about recycling tech junk, Greenpeace sees e-waste as one of the most serious forms of pollution going unchecked.

The environmental organization claims that e-waste is the fastest growing contributor of municipal waste because of the frequency at which people upgrade to new cell phones, computers, and other electronics. According to its estimates, 20 million to 50 million tonnes of electronics are thrown away each year worldwide.(Others estimate that e-waste will plateau by 2015.)

(Credit: BigBelly Solar)

Who knew America's mayors were so interested in trash?

Garbage removal heavyweight Waste Management announced this week at the U.S. Conference of Mayors that it will distribute BigBelly Solar's solar-powered trash compactor in North America.

Waste Management expects to sell them to municipal governments and other organizations responsible for garbage at public places, such as sports venues. Fifteen of the BigBelly Solar units are installed at a retail center adjacent to Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass., home of the New England Patriots. Numerous cities and towns in the U.S. have also purchased them.

The BigBelly Solar compactors look like a typical street-side trash can except they are outfitted with solar panels on the top. The solar panel powers a motor that crushes the trash, which means that pick-ups can be done less often. The newest versions of the compactors are now network-equipped to send a signal when they are full.

The compactors themselves are made from recycled materials and work in areas that don't receive direct sunlight, said Richard Kennelly, vice president of marketing for BigBelly Solar, in a statement.

The exclusive distribution deal with Waste Management is a big win for Needham, Mass.-based BigBelly Solar which was started a few years ago and quickly found receptive customers in city mayors in Boston, Philadelphia, and other places.

The company raised an additional $3.2 million from undisclosed investors, according to an SEC filing made public last month.

Re-revving your engine: Waste heat is a terrible thing to waste.

(Credit: Idaho National Laboratories)

General Electric and the Idaho National Laboratory are plumbing engines for a cheap source of energy: waste heat.

The two organizations said Tuesday that they have received a $2 million Department of Energy grant to further develop GE technology that converts the heat from industrial engines into electricity. That technology could make engines 20 percent to 40 percent more efficient and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The engines that run factories, mills and power plants are often only 35 percent efficient. That means the rest of the available energy from fossil fuels goes unused.

GE researchers in Germany and New York have been working to improve the Organic Rankine Cycle, a process that's been understood for over 100 years but has been expensive in practice. The research will seek to build a prototype of a more efficient and cost-effective ORC which will convert heat from a gas turbine.

Rather than use a working fluid to capture and transfer the waste heat, GE has developed a new evaporator to transfer it. The new design means that ORCs can be used to convert relatively low-temperature heat (under 500 degrees Celsius) into electricity on a wide range of power sources, including the equipment in coal power plants and small gas turbines, said Thomas Fry, a researcher in GE's Munich offices.

There are already waste-heat recovery systems operating in large industrial facilities that produce steam from smokestacks to turn an electricity turbine. Another technology that's being pursued, although is still expensive, is thermoelectrics, materials that create a current from heat.

One company called ElectraTherm has developed a on-site generator, which uses an Organic Rankine Cycle to make electricity at facilities such as offices or hospitals.

CNET followed the last day of an analog TV's life as it was being recycled.

(Credit: Erik Palm/CNET)

On June 12, the U.S. makes its long-anticipated shift to digital television. As that changeover prompts consumers to ditch their old analog TV sets in favor of more modern devices, environmental organizations such as Greenpeace are warning of a surge in e-waste.

"We are seeing now a huge anticipated spike in the amount of electronic waste, really a tsunami of electronic waste coming through because of this digital transition," said Casey Harrell, a Greenpeace International campaigner.

And it's not just that the old television sets are piling up--as with scrapped PCs and printers, there's also the danger that they'll be exported to places with lax or nonexistent environmental safeguards.

"We're seeing a new wave of electronic waste that's ending up on the shores of India, China, West Africa, and Latin America," Harrell said.

E-waste often contains toxic metals such as cadmium, lead, and mercury, along with flame retardant chemicals that can accumulate in the body and potentially cause reproductive and neurological harm.

In the face of those concerns, some businesses are now promising to recycle your TV properly.

CNET News followed one aging analog TV as it headed to the next world, making its own transition from consumer electronics device to scrap metal and other parts. We met Mark Salvador as he was leaving his old Symphonic TV at a Waste Management site in San Leandro, Calif.

"The remote is not working, and the picture is not good. That is why we buy a new TV," Salvador said.

Salvador's TV set is transported from collector Waste Management to E-Recycling of California, in Hayward, south of Oakland. E-Recycling of California has pledged not to burn, dump, or export the waste, and for that reason it has received E-Stewards certification from the Basel Action Network, a watchdog group.

"We are actually dismantling it down into commodities...Everything's going at a commodity level on to be further recycled," Russ Caswell, manager at E-Recycling, explained. "A plastic-based television (is) 100 percent (recyclable). About the only thing on any television that doesn't always get totally recycled or reused would be a wooden case from an old console TV."

Ivan Tego of E-Recycling of California dismantles an analog TV.

(Credit: Erik Palm/CNET)

So what can you do to avoid contributing to the wave of electronic waste from the digital transition?

First, Greenpeace says, consider whether you really need a new TV. A digital converter box, subsidized by the government, can keep your old TV alive a few more years. Alternatively, the TV could continue its useful life for a while longer if you donate it to a charitable organization--the Environmental Protection Agency lists a number that will take the devices.

If you do decide to recycle the old TV, first go to the TV manufacturer's Web site for recycling information. (PC makers and retailers also offer recycling programs.) If you head to a recycling facility, make sure that the recycler has E-Stewards certification.

More information on recycling from EPA can be found here.

Municipal trash giant Waste Management on Thursday created a joint venture that will turn waste into energy using technology that it says is cleaner than incinerators.

S4 Energy Solutions is a joint venture which will use plasma gasification technology from InEnTec of Bend, Ore., to build distributed energy systems. Waste Management financed the creation of the venture, marking the first time that the trash collector has invested in gasification technology, said Senior Vice President Joseph Vaillancourt.

The new company plans to build distributed energy systems that use separated industrial waste as a "feedstock." For example, the company plans to design systems that can turn medical waste into electricity at hospitals, said Jeffrey Surma, the president and CEO of S4 Energy Solutions.

There are a number of mostly small companies that are developing trash-to-energy systems around gasification. One company, Enerkem, on Wednesday passed the environmental regulatory process and won approval to build a facility to turn municipal solid trash into ethanol and chemicals in Edmonton, Alberta.

Rather than burn trash, gasification heats the material at very high temperatures until it breaks down and produces a synthesis gas, or syngas. That syngas can be burned in a natural gas turbine, which is considered a relatively clean way to make electricity. S4 Energy Solutions said that it can also make ethanol, other liquid fuels, or potentially hydrogen.

The InEnTec product has a process for cleaning the syngas. Initial tests show that the level of environmental pollutants dioxins and furens released is low, Surma said.

(Credit: InEnTech)

"The emissions from a power generating facility would be far better than EPA requirements, comparable if not better than a power generator operating on natural gas," he said, adding that the company hopes to have customers later this year.

The technology was originally developed in the early 1990s at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Surma said.

S4 Energy's planned gasification systems won't replace incinerators but they do provide an option for on-site energy generation. Waste Management will provide ancillary equipment, such as sorting, to create a full waste-to-energy system, Vaillancourt said.

(Credit: Pike Research)

The contribution to landfills from electronics will actually escalate until about 2015, but good news will follow, according to a report released Wednesday by Pike Research.

So-called e-waste will reach a global volume of 73 million metric tons by 2015, then begin to decline in the years following as recycling initiatives and practices catch up to the rate of the production of electronic goods, according to the report called "Electronics Recycling and E-Waste Issues."

The prediction is the firm's own forecast based on the premise that companies and governments worldwide will continue and expand current recycling programs and initiatives--a practice Pike Research said will likely continue now that public awareness of the effects of e-waste dumping have been brought to light.

The report found that the efforts of nonprofit groups and the media to expose the effects of e-waste dumping have influenced original equipment manufacturers and recyclers worldwide to make an effort to clean up their act.

Pike Research touted the following companies as responsible leaders when it comes to recycling e-waste: Cisco, Dell, HP, Motorola, Nokia, Research In Motion, Sprint Nextel, and Vodafone.

It blamed low consumer effort to recycle old stuff as part of the problem, as well the dumping of e-waste in developing countries.

"Consumers have few incentives to reuse or recycle used electronics equipment. In most countries, it is still too easy and relatively inexpensive to throw e-waste in the trash. An optimistic estimate of average recycle rates is about 15 percent. Inconsistent legislation, minimal controls on the recyclers, and little enforcement has also led to widespread and inappropriate dumping of e-waste in developing countries," the report said.