An article in the morning’s Sun Chronicle announces our filing and we are excited to be taking this next step in the development of this green energy Project.  The proposed Project will involve the construction and operation of Ze-gen’s advanced liquid metal gasification facility, which will convert specific feedstock streams into clean energy and generate about 7MW of electricity and thermal energy for use by the commercial tenants in the Attleboro Corporate Campus.

Ze-gen’s liquid metal gasification technology produces tar-free syngas that serves as a viable form of alternative non-fossil fuel energy for surrounding industrial facilities. The syngas will be directed to and combusted in a boiler to generate steam, hot water, and subsequently electricity. These products will be sold to businesses within the campus.  The feedstock for Ze-gen’s process is post-recycled, processed materials.  Feedstock will be delivered to the Project site ready-to-use, with the only feedstock material handling at the Attleboro facility being the unloading of the material and its conveyance to the gasification system. Waste wood, including railroad crossties and creosote-treated poles, as well as non-recyclable source-separated plastics, carpet fibers, and residuals from industrial glycol processing will serve as Ze-gen’s feedstock materials.  Much of the proposed feedstock material has undergone rigorous testing at Ze-gen’s demonstration facility in New Bedford, Massachusetts.

The deployment of Ze-gen’s technology in the City of Attleboro offers the Attleboro community, and the Commonwealth as a whole, the opportunity to become a leader in applying advanced gasification solutions to waste resolution and clean energy generation.  The proposed Attleboro Clean Energy Project will bring permanent economic and environmental benefits to both the local community and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.  Public comments on the EIR can be submitted to the Secretary until October 8th. We are excited about moving forward with the commercial application of our technology and joining the Attleboro community.  Any questions regarding the Project can be submitted at www.attleboroproject.com.

Landfills also form leachate, which is contaminated water that can seep into waterways and groundwater supplies. Toxins from leachate can make their way into drinking water.  These toxins include bacteria, dissolved salts, heavy metals, petroleum hydrocarbons, volatile organic compounds, and pesticides.  Any number of health problems may stem from leachate.  While landfills are a large and growing problem, the waste that typically finds its way to a landfill represents a local opportunity as a source of renewable energy.  Advanced technologies, such as liquid metal gasification, harness the latent energy value from waste. Instead of benefiting from the tipping fees (the price to dump the waste at the landfill) these technologies create a high-quality energy sold to industrial users in place of fossil fuels.

Diverting waste from landfills for higher and better reuse has the potential to benefit communities both economically and environmentally. As the costs of landfilling continue to rise, it is important that we continue to develop technologies that reduce the need for landfills that also create a high value product to re-purpose these waste streams for higher and better use.

The Atlantic Monthly notes Chu’s SEAB members “are insiders who know how to fight in Washington’s trenches.”  Sue is the former Assistant Secretary for Policy at the U.S. Department of Energy (appointed by President Clinton).  She also served as the Secretary for Environmental Affairs in Massachusetts (appointed by Governor Weld), Commissioner at the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities (appointed by Governor Dukakis), and executive director of the Massachusetts Energy Facilities Siting Council.  Recently, she co-led the Obama/Biden Transition’s Department of Energy Agency Review Team.   Her area of expertise include gas and electric markets and regulatory policy, resource planning and analysis (including energy efficiency and renewable energy), regional transmission organizations, the siting of generation, transmission and natural gas pipeline projects, and environmental policy and regulation.  We look forward to seeing the advances in energy policy and practice that are sure to come in the future. Congratulations Sue!

These new rules will significantly limit which projects can qualify for renewable energy credits, without which many of the facilities most likely cannot be built economically.  Biomass power, the New York Times writes in an article about this very topic, is “a $1 billion industry in the United States according to the Biomass Power Association, a trade group based in Maine.  Biomass has long been considered both renewable and carbon-neutral on its most basic level.” The article goes on to state, “[t]he technology has long held substantial allure for state and federal regulators seeking to diversify energy portfolios. California, Maine, Michigan, New Hampshire, Oregon, Vermont and Washington are among the states that make heavy use of biomass.” Because Massachusetts is considered a leader in the development of renewable energy portfolio standards, the stricter regulations that the Commonwealth is developing may carry considerable implications for biomass developers, as well as for other states developing their own renewable portfolio targets.

We agree that there must be regulations in place to support the sustainable development of biomass power, especially surrounding the use of “clean wood;” however these regulations should not stymie the development of biomass power as part of the State’s renewable energy portfolio. When it was first released, the results of the Manomet study were widely misrepresented and Manomet’s President, John Hagan, released a statement in an attempt to clarify the conclusions.  Hagan wrote “One commonly used press headline has been ‘wood worse than coal’ for GHG [greenhouse gas] emissions or for ‘the environment.’ This is an inaccurate interpretation of our findings, which paint a much more complex picture.”  He goes on to clarify a number of the findings point by point and ends saying reminding us that there are many factors, in addition to greenhouse gases, that must be taken into consideration when developing energy policy, including: energy security, air quality, forest recreation values, local economics, and other environmental impacts.

Biomass power has the potential to significantly strengthen the State and the Nation’s domestic and renewable energy goals.  Biomass energy offers a baseload power solution that solar and wind cannot. Waste biomass, especially, offers significant benefit as the wood as already reached the end of its useful life and using the material beneficially for energy production not only helps to reduce reliance on fossil fuels but it also reduces the amount of wood that is landfilled.  We hope that the policymakers at the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources consider this as they begin to write new regulations on biomass energy as a renewable resource.

The preceding master plan (Beyond 2000 Solid Waste Master Plan) outlined a vision for solid waste management in Massachusetts that included:

• Reducing the toxicity of our waste to the irreducible minimum,
• Disposing only residuals from recycling and other waste reduction efforts, and
• Ensuring that waste handling facilities are environmentally sound.

While still including an emphasis on waste disposal reduction, the 2010-2020 Plan focuses on an integrated approach that manages materials throughout their lifecycles. Including:

• Promoting more efficient use of materials,
• Increasing recycling of materials that have served their useful purpose,
• Reducing the amount of waste requiring disposal,
• Reducing the toxicity of the waste requiring disposal, and
• Improving the environmental performance of solid waste management facilities.

MassDEP goes on to state that the plan “also lays the groundwork for a zero waste approach for the future, where all materials are efficiently used and then given a future use—whether in new products, nutrients returned to the earth, or energy” (p. 14). To achieve zero waste for the future, MassDEP is shifting their solid waste management priorities from focusing on a waste reduction to a disposal rate reduction target for a measuring progress. More specifically, by 2020 the goal is to reduce annual solid waste disposal by 30% from 6,550,000 tons of disposal in 2009 to 4,550,000 tons of disposal in 2020.  MassDEP writes “This reduction in disposal could happen through varying combinations of source reduction, material reuse, recycling, composting, and using source separated materials as fuels, or other beneficial uses of materials” (p. 16). We have a number of options for disposal reduction, and once we fully embrace the technologies and alternative markets that allow us to reduce landfill use, we will be able to reach this 30% goal.

The path to zero waste, MassDEP acknowledges, can only be achieved when we all shift our views on the use of materials. Instead of relying on the assumption that our unwanted material is trash and should be disposed, we need to first think about reusing and recycling, which not only adds commercial value to the material, but it also transforms waste from a burden on the environment to valuable product for alternative use.  It is important that as the Department works to implement the objectives outlined in the document, that innovative technologies do receive the encouragement and regulatory support that are necessary to altering the views of material from waste to valuable products.  In addition to helping to reduce waste disposal, the reuse of materials for energy in advanced technologies helps the Commonwealth reduce its reliance on fossil fuels.  We at Ze-gen see a tremendous opportunity in being one of many new technologies focused on reducing the scourge of landfill disposal and instead increasing recycling and beneficial reuse of materials to produce energy and other useful products.

The draft is ready for comment and public hearings will be held throughout the month of July and September (see schedule), and public comments are due September 15^th.

The results of the study call into question the ‘carbon-neutrality’ of biomass and brings up a number of other points that are due to be hotly debated as the DOER develops its policy. Bill Opalka, of renewablesbiz.com, suggests this study, and the subsequent stakeholder meetings and public commenting periods “could eventually lead to the state downgrading biomass resources.” It will be important to keep watch on this issue as we move forward in developing our renewable energy portfolio, as it will undoubtedly affect the shape of our energy goals.

The large amount of artifacts found from the 19th century are significant because they help us to understand the lifestyles of everyday people during this time period. It is rare that a family would leave behind so much of their belongings, so this is a rare opportunity for us to all learn a lot about our local history from a family’s trash. This story brings to light a topic that we do not often think about – that what we throw away can really  inform future generations about who we are how we live.  Hence, our discarded waste really can serve a value to future generations.

Last Thursday, Ze-gen conducted our MEPA “site-visit,” which is a part of the MEPA review process, where interested parties, citizens and community members are able to visit the location of a proposed project, hear a presentation on the project details, ask questions and offer comments.

Bill Davis, Ze-gen’s CEO gave the presentation, which outlined our technology, the specifics of the Attleboro Clean Energy Project, and the benefits the Project will bring to the surrounding community. Following the presentation and Q&A session, we walked the site to get a better sense of where the buildings will be located within the Attleboro Corporate Campus. For those unable to attend, below is a summary of the Attleboro Clean Energy Project.

• The Project will convert approximately 150 tons per day of six specified waste streams into synthesis gas (syngas- a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen)
• The syngas will be used in a boiler to generate green electricity for the tenants of the industrial park and thermal energy to select customers, with any excess power may be sold to the grid
• The six waste streams to be used are: railroad crossties, utility poles, non-recyclable source-separated plastics, carpet fibers, and recycled coolant glycol (anti-freeze), and wood pallets
• This feedstock will be reclassified as a fuel through MassDEP’s Beneficial Use Determination process, will arrive on site as a post-recycled, processed material
• The $15 million advanced gasification facility will position the Attleboro Corporate Campus as the first green industrial park in Massachusetts, and offers significant greenhouse gas emissions reductions on two fronts:

1. Reduction in fossil fuel use within the park through the substitution of syngas to help satisfy the tenants’ energy requirements
2. Diversion of approximately 44,000 tons of waste from landfills annually will lead to methane emissions reductions (landfills are the second-largest human-related source of methane in the U.S., and methane captures 20 times more heat in the atmosphere than CO₂)

• Expansion of local employment, creating 20 permanent green energy jobs and approximately 100  local construction jobs
• Enrichment of local educational collaboration through partnership with Attleboro’s two colleges to increase green job training and research and development

The Company aims to begin construction on the Attleboro Clean Energy Project at the end of 2010 and construction is expected to take approximately 1 year.

Attleboro Clean Energy Facility Conceptual Design