Energy Recovery Case Study: City of Edmonton

The City of Edmonton has a population of around 800,000. It currently converts over 60 per cent of its municipal solid waste into saleable products. Approximately 45,000 tonnes of materials are recycled, 70,000 tonnes are sold as compost and 95,000 tonnes are landfilled. The lack of available landfill space, and failure to locate a new landfill site, has led to increased need for additional diversion processes. A proposed new pre-processing facility and biofuels plant to be commissioned in 2011 will increase diversion to 90 per cent and will include virtually all non-recycled residual plastics. Energy efficiencies: At capacity, the new biofuels plant will gasify 100,000 tonnes of solid

waste to produce 36 million litres of ethanol a year. This amount contains the energy equivalent of around 23 million litres of gasoline – enough to power about 18,000 average cars (8.5 litres/100 km) for 15,000 km/year.

Employment impact: The current Edmonton Waste Management Centre is a production plant employing about 300 people. The new biofuels facility will create 25 additional highly skilled positions.

Impact on public budget: The new facility will be a private/public partnership. Although the details of the agreement between the city and its partners remain confidential, city officials say that the cost to the city is approximately the same as the cost of landfill disposal at Ryley. The Alberta provincial government is also on board. Through one of its agencies, it contributed $29 million to the biofuels project – $20 million to help defray the capital costs of the plant and $9 million to build an advanced energy research facility at the Edmonton Waste Management Centre. This research facility will include a complete 300 kg/hr pilot gasification system that will allow the testing of other feedstocks.

Impact of new facility: The potential sale of residual heat and syngas from the new biofuels facility (as well as the sale of concentrated carbon dioxide, fly ash, char, and carbon credits) are being actively pursued. A project to use the residual heat and syngas by the County of Stathcona was announced in October 2009. The project attracted approximately $7.5 million in provincial funding. It will reduce carbon dioxide emissions by about 7,000 tonnes a year.

Recycling Levels: In both the U.S. and European Union, studies have demonstrated a

positive correlation between energy recovery in the region and higher than national recycling rates. The new biofuels facility will increase the City of Edmonton’s current recycling rate by one third.

Materials sorting and recovery: The current Municipal Waste Treatment Facilities process over 250,000 tonnes of waste per year. The new biofuels facility will take up to 100,000 tonnes of residuals from the recycling and composting processes. When completed, the Municipal Waste Treatment Facilities will divert over 90 per cent of the municipal solid waste from landfill.

Economic Impacts

Environmental Impacts

Continued… Landfill diversion: The facility will result in a net reduction in landfill additions of

approximately 71,000 tonnes – the equivalent of filling a Canadian Football League stadium to a depth of 25 metres or about 90 feet every year. Input feed material will be comprised of about 23,000 tonnes of plastics from the municipal solid waste stream and another 10,000 tonnes of plastic that will be selected from the industrial, commercial and institutional, as well as construction and demolitions streams.

Captured energy: The new biofuels facility will produce enough ethanol to power 18,000 cars 15,000 kilometres a year.

Greenhouse gas reductions: The new biofuels facility will reduce the City’s carbon footprint by 6,000,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent over the 25 year life of the plant.

Air emissions: Project implementation required an environmental permit from the Province of Alberta. Analyses of exit gases from the pilot plant during runs using the feedstock materials from the City of Edmonton demonstrated that, in normal operation, all of the common metals, including those popularly called “heavy” metals, were below the limits of detection. Similarly, chlorine, fluorine, sulphur, dioxins and particulates were below detection limits. Small amounts of oxides of nitrogen and carbon monoxide are dispersed by a stack and were shown to be well within the Alberta Ambient Air Quality Objectives. The result is a very environmentally clean process that operates well within legislated guidelines.

Community support: Part of the approval process for the new facility required public input.

There have been no negative reports regarding the biofuels project in the local press. Plus, all 11 comments received from the 32 attendees of the public information sessions were positive. This contrasts significantly with the massive pubic outcry in the 1990s when the City of Edmonton put forth a proposal to build a new landfill within the City limits and subsequently abandoned the idea.

Industry and public relationship: The integrated facility in the City of Edmonton is a model of leadership for other municipalities. Creative public/private partnerships reduced the initial outlay by the City and the rewards are a sustainable, environmentally responsible process for managing solid waste while maintaining control of the costs and operation within the community.

Political/Institutional Impacts