UMaine to research ‘trashanol’

The Municipal Review Committee (MRC) is partnering with the University of Maine to research an energy solution which involves turning garbage into energy known as “Trashanol.”

The MRC is a non-profit organization which leads the trash disposal interests of over 180 communities in Penobscot County and surrounding areas. The group’s trash is currently disposed by the Penobscot Energy Recovery Company (PERC). The PERC operates a waste-to-energy plant in Orrington and is part owned by the MRC.

The PERC plant presently burns the majority of waste collected in the area. This burning creates energy which is used by Emera Maine as part of a three decade long contract between the two companies. Currently, the contract is favorable to PERC as it receives $0.16 for every kilowatt hour it produces. Once the contract ends in 2018 this rate is expected to drop to between$0.04-$0.06 per kilowatt hour. For the past five years the MRC has been searching for an alternate source of energy in anticipation of the impending contract coming to an end.

The MRC has agreed to spend $20,000 to employ the University of Maine’s Forest Bioproducts Research Institute to study the garbage-to-energy known as Fiberight. Fiberight has approached the MRC about establishing a plant in the Penobscot region which would turn garbage into energy, but in a different, more profitable way than is currently being performed by the PERC.

Fiberight Chief Executive Craig Stuart-Paul spoke with the Orono Town Council in July about his company’s unique waste disposal methods.

“We have an organic solution — rather than burning [waste] … let’s come up with a solution that deals with the organics first and then another way to deal with the recyclables,” Stuart-Paul said.

Traditionally, all organic matter in trash in either burned or place into landfills. Fiberight, however, plans to use enzyme technology to turn the organic materials into engineered fuels. Fiberight operates a demonstration plant in Lawrenceville, Virginia that is used to turn municipal solid waste into ethanol, biogas or compressed natural gas. The company created and copyrighted the term Trashanol for their fuel products.

Orono town manager, Sophie Wilson, expressed desire to have students from the University of Maine assist in researching Fiberight’s procedures.

“We are looking forward to the findings from the study that MRC just executed a contract with UMaine to complete. At this point we are in the beginning stages of confirming the technology, but are excited at the prospect of what appears to be a sustainable, affordable, and environmentally friendly method to manage municipal solid waste,” Wilson said.

Greg Lounder, the executive director of MRC, stated that professor Hemant Pendse of the University’s Forest Bioproducts Research Institute has been tasked with leading the study of Fiberight.

“Pendse has assembled a project team with expertise in industrial development and process, techno-economic analysis, enzymatic hydrolysis and microbial fermentation,” Lounder remarked.

The study has been planned to start this week, and the MRC has requested that the final report be available before their annual meeting in January.

Several goals of the study will be to determine if the Trashanol process will be able to operate effectively in the colder Maine climate, whether it will comply with the Department of Environmental Protection’s regulations and the minimal tonnage required to make the potential plant in Maine profitable. Board members of the MRC have also inquired as to whether the company could produce salt from the waste which could be used on the roads in the winter.

Similar technology was being used by Old Town Fuel and Fiber, before its closing in August, by turning wood into cellulosic sugars. The cellulosic sugars can be used for many chemical-based products and plastics.

However, not all of the municipal solid waste would be used for the creation of fuel products. Recyclables such as plastic, paper, glass and metal could be removed and sold.

“Milk jugs are selling at $1,000 per ton. Plastic bags, virgin polyethylenes, is selling for $660 a ton — why would I burn that?” Stuart-Paul explained.

If the study of the Maryland-based company proves advantageous to the MRC it could be a welcomed sigh of relief for the area. The likely termination of the PERC-Emera Maine contract in 2018 could potentially lead to municipal waste disposal complications as PERC may raise their rates for processing waste from the MRC communities.

It has also been discussed about possibly using portions of the Old Town Fuel and Fiber plant for the fuel processing portion of the MRC’s plan.

Sophie Wilson added that the potential new waste processing operation could lead to several new jobs in the area which has felt the pain of two large mills closing this year.

She explained, “Initial review indicates that, if constructed, this project would generate a number of jobs — both semi and highly skilled positions.”