Industrial-Scale Waste-to-Ethanol Facility Planned for Edmonton
by Matthew McDermott, Brooklyn, NY on 06.27.08
photo by Wade Kelly
Recently it feels like I’ve been writing “world’s first” quite frequently, though “world’s largest” might come in a close second. Greenfield Ethanol's plan for Edmonton, Canada is the latest project to warrant a “first”.
The first in question is the world’s first industrial scale facility to produce biofuels from municipal solid waste. Under a 25-year agreement with the city, the $70 million facility will initially produce 36 million liters of biofuel per year. Greenfield claims that this will reduce Alberta’s carbon footprint by more than 6 million tonnes over the next 25 years, an amount it says is equal to removing 12,000 cars off the road every year. The project will be jointly developed by Greenfield Ethanol and Enerkem.
Touting the project, Enerkem CEO Vincent Chornet said, “This new facility will be a first for both the biofuels and waste management industries. This is the world’s first agreement signed between a large urban center and a biofuel producer to turn municipal waste into ethanol.”
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This is one of the few situations where making ethanol can make real economic and environmental sense. Congrats to Edmonton. Even so, I wonder if it would be better to turn our garbage into compost and reduce the use of industrial, petroleum-based fertilizers? How does the carbon balance work out on that one.
Better to turn our waste into compost? Edmonton already does that with a giant Composting Facility:
"This state-of-the-art facility uses the City’s household waste and biosolids (sewage sludge) as resources to create compost, a rich soil supplement. Together with established recycling programs it enables Edmonton to divert about 60% of its residential waste from landfill."
Okay, so where will this facility be located, and when does it start? Or is it already up and running? Details?