Gasification: More efficient with less environmental impact

As green technologies gain momentum worldwide, Latin American and Caribbean countries face mounting challenges in their quest to lower energy costs and deal with solid waste problems.

BNamericas spoke with Bradley Smith, VP of business development for Ottawa-based waste conversion and energy generation company Plasco Energy Group, about its endeavors in the Caribbean and the new technology it has to offer.

BNamericas: Plasco is currently shortlisted for a renewable energy project in the Bahamas. How did this come about?

Smith: In the autumn of 2008, the Bahamas Electricity Corporation [BEC], which currently generates some 400MW/y of electricity, issued an RFP [request for proposal] for renewable energy, open to all technologies.

At the time they were not focusing on a specific technology but they had made a commitment to covert 5% of their energy portfolio to renewable power.

BEC received some 30 responses involving several types of technologies. These included typical technologies - such as solar, wind and tidal energy - as well as waste-to-energy technology.

In December they shortlisted those 30 names to 13, which still offered a wide spectrum of technologies.

However, there are a few things to be said about waste-to-energy technologies.

BNamericas: Can you elaborate on this?

Smith: Certainly. Waste-to-energy conversion can be done in a variety of ways.

The most widespread procedure involves burning or combusting the waste, taking the heat to generate steam, and driving the steam through a turbine to generate electricity.

It's not the most efficient way to generate electricity and it's also not the best way to do it from an environmental perspective.

This process generates a great deal of polluting air emissions, while leaving a lot of ash left over that still needs to be dealt with. More often than not, this ash is buried in landfills.

BNamericas: What is the alternative that Plasco offers?

Smith: We don't incinerate waste, we gasify it. This involves drawing out the volatile gases from the solid waste material, and then, through our own patented process, purifying them. The process is very, very clean and very rich in energy production.

We then clean up these gases and send them to our reciprocating gas engine that generates electricity. The net effect of doing this is much higher efficiency in the waste-to-energy conversion.

In essence, far more electricity per ton of waste is obtained, with a far better environmental impact.

With our technology, emissions are well inside the limits set by the most stringent jurisdictions in the world.

BNamericas: Does Plasco's gasification technology offer any other advantages?

Smith: Indeed. The other thing the Plasco conversion system offers, as opposed to incineration, is that it converts 99% of the leftover waste - ash for example - into usable, environmentally friendly products.

Therefore, in addition to the clean energy, numerous byproducts are obtained, such as agricultural-grade sulfur, commercial-grade salt, potable-quality water and an aggregate than can be used for construction purposes.

BNamericas: Does any other company on the Bahamas shortlist offer a similar alternative?

Smith: According to our research, the other companies on the shortlist offer the older, more antiquated incineration-based process.

What we offer is clean energy using more advanced technology. I believe Plasco to be the only company remaining on the shortlist to offer a gasification alternative.

BNamericas: Is Plasco involved in any other countries in the Caribbean?

Smith: Yes. Bermuda's Electric Light Company (BELCO) did something very similar to what BEC did.

On April 17 this year, BELCO posted a request for expressions of interest, but took a slightly different route, as it selected five companies, all with non-competing technologies, for example wind and solar power.

Obviously, BELCO will be happy if all five of these companies come to the island, but Plasco was selected as their waste conversion provider. We were also shortlisted in a tender to build a 200t/d waste conversion facility, which is expected to alleviate the country's waste management and energy needs.

We were invited to a public forum in April this year, where we presented our technology, and we are currently trying to make our technology fit with BELCO's incinerator, which is giving the company some grief.

They want to implement a more advanced technology, so we are looking forward to having a footprint in Bermuda.

BNamericas: Does Plasco have any special interest in island nations?

Smith: While our technology is useful to any country, it's especially suited for island nations. Their power needs tend to be very high as they have to import fuel, so they are trying to add renewable power to their portfolio at a lower price.

Additionally, they struggle with solid waste, as they have limited space and they cannot keep building more landfills or expanding existing ones, as this affects residential and tourist areas.

BNamericas: Is the company eyeing countries in Latin America?

Smith: We are a fairly new company in terms of our commercialization, so we are picking and choosing our markets really carefully.

Chilean President Michelle Bachelet recently visited our demonstration facility in Ottawa, and we would certainly consider an opportunity to enter the Chilean market.

So far, demand has exceeded our ability to fulfill it, so [Chilean capital] Santiago would be a really good platform to start building up our business in Latin America. In addition, one of our European partners, Spain-based Hera, does a lot of work in the city.

We also met with Mexico's environment minister [Juan Elvira] on May 14.

Several countries in Latin America, Mexico in particular, face huge energy challenges in urban areas. We can help solve those needs and take care of their waste problems at the same time.

BNamericas: Why does the company have a demonstration facility?

Smith: We invested in the construction of this facility because there are many companies out there claiming to do gasification, but which are actually composed of a couple of professors working from their laboratories.

Our commercial scale demonstration facility in Ottawa converts municipal solid waste into electricity, processing 85-100t/d of waste.

BNamericas: Has the global financial crisis affected Plasco's endeavors in any way?

Smith: The global financial crisis has made the funding of our plants more difficult. However, the local energy needs and the urgency to deal with solid waste management problems in major urban centers - such as Guadalajara or Mexico City - offsets the financial turmoil.

Local energy is created and used locally, and does not have to go through national distribution grids, which are usually saturated.

Given these needs, I would say Plasco is almost neutral, so to speak, in its marketplace. We were very positive before and we have slipped down to neutral, but we have not experienced much difficulty as of yet [because of the crisis].