CCEM 102 – Question 4

[Carly Johansson]

The final case study in Module 4 is a waste-to-biofuels facility in Edmonton. What was your reaction to including this project as a case study for community-based renewable energy? From your perspective, is this a renewable energy project or not?

[Carly Johansson]

This is a great question Pat. The best answer, in my opinion, is “it depends”. Waste to energy, especially where this level of refinement is necessary, is difficult to market as renewable because most of it isn’t. For example, the refined biofuel (ethanol) only constitutes 5% of the anticipated fuel mix, which arguably makes the end product non-renewable. However, bio-refineries are at an early stage of development (here are a few American examples: http://www.ethanolrfa.org/bio-refinery-locations/), and it will take several generations to make them truly renewable (assuming they ever get there). In addition, gains on decreasing the carbon footprint are hard-won, and even partial success stories (assuming you decide this isn’t a renewable energy project) are worth of study. For my part I would say this IS a renewable energy project and one that should be used as a foundation for future research.

[Carly Johansson]

This is a great question Pat. The best answer, in my opinion, is “it depends”. Waste to energy, especially where this level of refinement is necessary, is difficult to market as renewable because most of it isn’t. For example, the refined biofuel (ethanol) only constitutes 5% of the anticipated fuel mix, which arguably makes the end product non-renewable. However, bio-refineries are at an early stage of development (here are a few American examples: http://www.ethanolrfa.org/bio-refinery-locations/), and it will take several generations to make them truly renewable (assuming they ever get there). In addition, gains on decreasing the carbon footprint are hard-won, and even partial success stories (assuming you decide this isn’t a renewable energy project) are worth of study. For my part I would say this IS a renewable energy project and one that should be used as a foundation for future research.

[Carly Johansson]

I have to admit I am still on the fence as to if this is a “Renewable Energy” project. Like Ryan states – it is hard see this as renewable given the end product. I found another project that seems a little more likely capable to be considered renewable in New York State – but you do need a larger urban area to produce enough plastic waste to make it viable (http://www.plastic2oil.com/site/home) – taking waste plastics and converting them back to oil using waste gases to fire the ongoing furnace. Both of these processes can’t be considered Renewable in the traditional sense as they are missing the final link of capturing the Carbon gas released by burning the fuels. There are positives to these projects given the issues that they provide answer for regarding waste management and they are a step in the right direction and will ultimately help us more then hinder.

[Jen Grebeldinger]

I think it was an interesting case study to include in this module to illustrate the innovative technologies that are being developed to help address one of the 5 R’s of Waste Management (rethink, reduce, REUSE, recycle, & recover) and as an ALTERNATIVE source of energy.

To be deemed a RENEWABLE energy source, the bio-fuels would need to exist on their own without the re-profiling/burning of petrochemical derivatives such as plastics or other inorganic, man-made materials.

I get a little nervous thinking about the idea of bio-fuels being accounted for as a renewable energy source in the instance of corporations, governments, or other entities tying their Renewable Energy claims to such bio-fuel production instead of truly RENEWABLE energy technologies as covered throughout this module on Community-Based Renewable Energy.

[Jen Grebeldinger]

Ryna & Geoff – You may be interested in the approach that the City of Edmonton has been using (where I worked with their Waste Mgmt. Branch in the 1990’s) to deal with the film plastic they segregate from the waste stream. They have been separating out the film plastic, baling it, & transferring it to specific spots of their landfill, where they are stacking the 1m x 1m x 1m bales of film plastic like Leggo bricks, recording the location of these film plastic blocks with GPS coordinates, & covering them over as part of the reclaimed areas of the landfill.

If/when there comes a day when a more efficient process is created for recycling the film plastic (or possibly using it as a fuel source), the City of Edmonton will know precisely where they need to dig, to get at this buried, man-made source of plastic material.

[Carly Johansson]

Teresa
That is a interesting point. Here in Victoria, they now have a system set up to capture landfill gas for energy production – but that took years to create- I thought it was a big step to work to ban compostable kitchen scraps at the landfill, but the powers that be keep pushing off the enforcement deadline. Don’t get me wrong, there has been some great steps forward, just not at the pace I would like.

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