Borough rejects pitches for waste-fed power
Published Friday, December 26, 2008
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Stumble It!FAIRBANKS - Public officials have scrapped, for now, the prospect of incinerating Fairbanks’ trash to produce power.
The decision follows a review of a half-dozen proposals from companies interested in the idea, according to the Fairbanks North Star Borough, which runs the South Fairbanks public landfill — and which this summer solicited input from firms interested in building a waste-fed power plant.
A waste-to-energy plant, even a small one, would represent a major shift in waste management at the borough, which lacks anything resembling the overarching recycling plans seen in some cities and relies largely on the landfill.
Bob Shefchik, the borough’s chief of staff, said none of the proposals reviewed this fall would have collected enough revenue to cover their respective costs, making each too pricey to accept.
The now-shelved prospect of a waste-powered energy plant — which, in their most common form, incinerate common household trash to produce electricity in a process similar to that seen in coal-fired power plants — represents one of the more unique waste-management options considered during the past three years in Fairbanks. As it is, a private contractor hauls tens of thousands of tons of trash a year from collection sites around Fairbanks to the landfill.
The landfill is expected to fill with trash within 50 or 60 years under the borough’s existing waste-management plan, according to a report in the government’s annual budget. Shefchick said the review indicates there’s no way a waste-to-energy plant would pay its own way in Fairbanks with existing technology, but Jennifer Yuhas, a spokeswoman for borough Mayor Jim Whitaker, said future innovations in the market could change that.
“It’s still something the borough is interested in pursuing, when it’s more feasible,” she said.
The four proposals for waste-to-energy plants came from Corix Utilities, Emerald Power Corp., Alaska Recycling Energy and Novo Development Company, according to the borough. The proposed plants ranged in size from 6 to 18 megawatts.
Public officials briefly considered a traditional recycling plan in late 2005, but shelved it the following spring, saying it would be far too expensive to ship paper products, plastics and other recyclables out of state for processing. More than a year later, Whitaker formed a recycling task force to crunch recycling options while borough officials and a pair of researchers simultaneously pursued the waste-to-energy option.
Assembly member Mike Musick has led the recycling task force for the past year. The group is preparing to make recommendations to the full assembly, one that makes no mention of a waste-to-energy component. Musick said last week his group had worked under the assumption any new recycling options would be a first stop for the waste stream — and that any waste-to-energy plant would get what’s left.
“Burning any resource seems to me like the lowest recourse,” he said. “There are much higher-end uses.”
Waste-to-energy power plants are common in Europe and Japan, and roughly 90 are operating in the United States. The U.S. industry came under heavy scrutiny two decades ago for air pollution but has since largely cleaned up its act, according to air pollution specialists at the Environmental Protection Agency.
The landfill currently absorbs about 85,000 tons of municipal solid waste and a significant amount of construction debris each year, according to information related to the borough’s review. Landfill workers also do some recycling at the facility — last year they burned 19,000 gallons of used oil to heat the main building and recycled almost 2,000 tons of scrap metal, including hundreds of junked cars, according to the budget report.
A related request for proposals issued this summer by Golden Valley Electric Association indicates the co-op could buy electricity from a waste-powered plant at a few cents per kilowatt-hour below the price it charges residential customers.
The electric association operates five generating plants capable of generating, collectively, 220 megawatts of power during peak demand.
A 10-megawatt waste-to-energy plant would have represented a fraction of that capacity. The electric cooperative had offered to buy electricity from a waste-powered plant for either a set price per kilowatt hour or by “riding the market” through an adjustable avoided-cost tariff, said Kate Lamal, a vice president of power supply for GVEA.
Community Discussion
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A simple phone call to a freight shipper would tell you that so called "re-cycling" would not be profitable in Faribanks.
EPA clean air requirements alone would make burning the trash extreamly expensive.
Now why the he--- did we need to "study" that???
it is just another way for the bone headed politicans to give jobs to a select few and throw our tax money away. like outlawing the wood burning stoves, i think the epa and the local politicans have went too far this time.
Now we need to condemn the coal to liquids plant for the very same reasons. It will cost us more and produce tons of pollution.
We had something similar back in the early 90's, that made pellets for furnaces, then the Borough shut it down. More wasted money for something they already knew.
I wonder if there is a way to roll or bale up certain kinds of paper waste so that it would burn well in woodstoves. I used to know a man who solicited catalogs from every company under the sun, and he burned nothing but that in the winter. Don't know how well it worked, but it might at least be a way to re-use newspapers and other non-coated papers. People could use them like they would dry wood maybe. Just a thought.
Goldstreamer01 - wasn't the pellitizer out on Eielson? That was my impression and they shut it down after 9/11. Let me back this up, maybe Fairbanks had one but I also know Eielson did/does but Fbks quit taking the paper products out there after 9/11. Ok, that being said, how expensive would one of those be? So maybe we can't do something on a huge scale but even just get rid of all the paper going into the landfill would be something. I know a lot of folks on these threads don't believe in global warming so they don't really see the need to be "green" but my perspective is, whether its true or not, it certainly can't hurt to try to clean up our act. I've got a 7 year old daughter, what legacy do I want to leave her if she decides (like me) to stay in Alaska for her life too? It sure would be nice if we could find some economically friendly, earth friendly ways to cut down on the garbage going into the landfill - IMHO.
M I A it was just north of the landfill building, which i noticed is,nt being used anymore either, on the other side of the street.
The U used to collect paper for a pellet plant at Eielson. They stopped in '04 because the Airforce shut down the plant. From what I understand it's opened up again.
Pelletizer building at Eielson burnt down a few years ago.
That's why the project stopped.
We are sorely lacking in the recycling department
in Fairbanks. Surely we can come up with some kind
of innovative plan to get greener with our trash.
We're Alaskans, after all. We've been innovators
by necessity since day one.
Did somebody say "pellet mill" ??
http://images.google.com/images?um=1&...
I learned a valuable lesson when I was helping work the order-desk while building TAPS...
when getting price quotes from outside don't tell them you're from Alaska because if the find out Alaska is calling the price gets doubled or tripled.
If it was up to me I'd figure out a way to park a garbage-barge on the Tanana at Nenana with a pelletizer onboard, mix the slurry with coal-slurry and fill the barge full of pelletized boiler-fuel, then during breakup/hiwater float the barge to Galena for running a powerplant there.
DistantThunder, I thought you were a Government guy?
Your proposal makes to much sense. In order for the Government to take hold of your idea and run with it, it needs too be more complicated, more expensive, and have no chance of working well.
http://www.slideshare.net/ulev/bionic-mw...
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http://www.microfuel.net/
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http://www.globalresourcecorp.com/
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http://peswiki.com/energy/Directory:Wast...
My New Years Revolution is:::::::
You guys gotta set aside for me a mason jar full of placer-cons from the miners-moss in your sluicebox every month for all this "free" consulting you've been getting..
..otherwise I'm gonna have your wives throw ya off the porch to go work my claims with me.
Thou unmuzzled knotty-pated carrion!
Thou droning urchin-snouted codpiece!
Thou soulless beetle-headed execrable-wretch!
Thou paunchy beef-witted turd!
Thou rascally idle-headed mammet!
Thou perfidious shard-borne ratsbane!
Thou frothy fly-bitten tyrant!
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