Co-gen plant may save bundle

Boundary County commissioners and about 25 people gathered at the County Extension Office to see a presentation by Kris Skrinak, president of adaptiveARC, Inc.

The company manufactures what they tout as the most economically and environmentally compelling solution for waste elimination and energy generation.

The meeting was set up by Sam Fodge, owner of the Fodge Pulp Mill on Cow Creek.

After around 15 years studying waste to energy systems, he is convinced that the technology presented by Skrinak could be a solution to not only handling the county’s solid waste, but could convert what is now costly trash into county revenue.

“We can get rid of the trash in our own backyard while producing energy,” Fodge said.  “Huge potential for a huge savings that will save or even make money rather than keep costing money.”

On Tuesday, commissioners met again with Fodge and Jody Thomas, vice president of Global Fuel Technology, and agreed to take a closer look.

Calling the system state of the art, Skrinak explained last Tuesday that their cool plasma gasification systems are nothing like the waste to energy systems of just a few years ago.

“They are not incinerators,” he explained. “They are the cleanest way to convert energy from biomass and solid waste. All of the byproducts are recyclable.”

According to Skrinak, any kind of waste, from tires to wood to household trash to sewage, can be feed into one end of the closed loop system, where a cool plasma torch, operating at a temperature of 1,300-degrees Centigrade, turns solid waste to gas to either generate electricity or produce eco-fuels, including gasoline and diesel. Even the exhaust from the diesel generator is feed back into the system … according to Skrinak, the system uses less than five-percent of the power it produces, leaving 95-percent available to sell or use for other purposes. If solid waste is converted to liquid fuel, Thomas said, one ton of waste would produce from 70 to 100 gallons of fuel, which could be put into the trucks that haul the garbage with enough left over to sell.

The basic system is designed to handle up to 25 tons of solid waste per day to generate one half to 10 megawatts of electricity, depending on what the fuel is. Old tires, which are tremendously hard to recycle, provide prime fuel for the system, but even wood waste and sewage can be used to produce more energy than the system uses to convert them.

According to Skrinak, the primary solid produced by the system is an ash that can be sold as fertilizer or for use in concrete or asphalt, and a few metals, all of which are recyclable.

In addition to converting waste coming in, he said, the existing landfill could be “mined” and fed into the system. In time, what had once been a landfill could become little more than a collection point.

While nearly anything can be put through the system, Skrinak said, he said that the system, integrated with a recycling program such as that practiced by the county, could provide a 100-percent recycling rate, producing saleable products that would turn an expense and liability into income. He said the system has been tested and meets strict California EPA emission standards.

Fodge said he’s been interested in bringing waste to energy technology to the county for years, and he told commissioners on Tuesday that it doesn’t matter whether he brings it in as a private enterprise or if it becomes part of the county solid waste program.

“I’ve looked at a lot of different systems,” he said, “and I’m convinced this is the best available.”

If the county chooses not to get involved, he said he’s interested in leasing an area by the landfill on which to set up the system, which would cost around $4 million. While he has considerable waste wood that would go into the system, the landfill, he said, has considerably more prime fuels, which would result in higher production output.

The county landfill currently operates under federal Subtitle D exemptions, one of the few small community landfills allowed to continue to operate under ever tightening federal regulations.

 To maintain the exemption, the county has to maintain an expensive monitoring program and prepare for the eventual closure of the landfill, likely within the next 20 years at an estimated cost of about $1.8 million. After that, the county will have to look into other options. In Bonner County, most of the solid waste is currently trucked out at considerable expense.

“Instead of hospital and school bonds,” Fodge told commissioners, “let’s generate the money ourselves. It doesn’t matter if it’s me or the county, it will benefit everyone.”

Commissioners agreed to give it a closer look, asking Thomas to work with Solid Waste superintendent Clain Skeen to develop a cost-benefit analysis and provide additional detail on system costs and specifications.

“We need to go through this process,” commissioner Dan Dinning said. “We’d be foolish not to.”

Julie Golder contributed to this story.