Abengoa just released this video of the ongoing construction of Fulcrum Bioenergy’s Sierra Biofuels Plant outside of Reno, Nevada. As I like to post videos once in a while and yesterday was Earth Day, this just reminded me of the progress of several technologies now being commercialized such as using municipal waste as feedstock for the production of fuel and chemicals.
Fulcrum’s Sierra BioFuels Plant, which is being built by Abengoa, will begin operation in 2020 (according to their website) and will convert 175,000 tons of household garbage into 10.5 million gallons of fuel each year. Phase One of the Sierra plant is already in operation as its feedstock processing facility is already processing more than 1,500 tons/day of raw household garbage. The processed waste is being prepared for conversion to fuel at the Sierra Biorefinery where phase two of the project is constructing the unit where Fulcrum’s gasification technology will use the prepared municipal solid waste feedstock (MSW) and convert it into a purified syngas followed by conversion to syncrude using Fischer-Tropsch technology.
There other companies working on the same concept but one that comes to mind that is already in the commercial stage is Enerkem, which has a biorefinery producing methanol and ethanol using MSW in Edmonton, Canada.
By the way, I am working on my presentation for the incoming Bio-Materials conference hosted by nova Institute next month in Cologne, Germany. One of my slides will talk about bio-naphtha and its growing chemical feedstock potential. Did you know that the Sierra BioFuels plant could also produce bio-naphtha?
