Project leaders of a future waste-to-energy facility met last week to give updates on the progress of the Renewable Energy Clean Air Project.
John Howard, chief executive officer of Coronal, LLC, the company partnering with Koochiching County on developing the facility, said last week the road to this stage of the project has “been a little bit of a journey.”
“Technology has advanced and we are now in the unique position to do something meaningful to the state of Minnesota, but more specifically, Koochiching County,” Howard said of the potential facility.
Through a series of slides, Howard explained that the plasma gasification facility would, by gasifying garbage and other waste, produce two types of outputs: synthetic gas and slag. The “syngas,” comes from organic waste and would be sold as sources of energy, such as steam. Slag, the byproduct of gasifying inorganic waste, can be sold as road aggregate, tile and bricks, among other products.
While a potential site for the roughly 50,000 square-foot facility isn’t final, a site near the Boise paper mill has been explored as possible option. Last year, Boise officials indicated the company is exploring the possibility of being a potential partner in the project and a buyer of the energy byproduct.
“(Having the site) located near Boise would avoid loss-associated costs,” said Steve Korstad, Coronal chief financial officer.
RECAP, which has been on the radar for more than six years, in 2010 received about $5 million through contracts with the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, Westinghouse Plasma, Koochiching County and the Koochiching Development Authority, to continue preliminary work on the project. The funding allowed for a feasibility study that focused on availability of feedstock, or waste, from neighboring counties. No agreements have yet been reached with other communities, but the study includes Koochiching, Lake of the Woods, Beltrami, Itasca, Hubbard and Cass counties as well as the city of Fort Frances as potential sources of feedstock, Howard said.
“We want these five surrounding counties to catch on,” he noted. “Slowly, but surely, the approach towards waste is shifting. I think that’s a good thing. We need these other counties to participate.”
In addition to the five neighboring counties, Korstad said the facility would “really welcome Canadian waste.”
Doug Brown, manager of Fort Frances Operations and Facilities Division, said having such a site in International Falls would be beneficial to his community because it would alleviate waste transportation costs to Thunder Bay, Ont.
When Brown asked if the facility would be able to handle waste from across the border, Howard and Korstad both assured him that it would.
According to Howard, the facility would consume 60,000 tons of waste annually — 200 tons per day. The net operating income, according to the feasibility study, could be more than $2 million per year, but the document authors caution about many assumptions behind the number.
Paul Nevanen, director of Koochiching Economic Development Authority, told The Journal the estimated price tag for the project is about $40 million, which would include modifications to the Koochiching County Waste Transfer Station, which would play a role in the RECAP facility.
He said his “hope” for funding the facility will come from all directions including state, federal, local, and private funds.
“Private dollars are going to be tricky because this (technology) is so new,” he said. “We are trying to get as much information out there as possible.”
Korstad said it was important for the public to understand that, “We’re at the point that there are 21 operating landfills in the state of Minnesota. We’re at that stage that his is an economical alternative.”
In addition, he explained that current landfills are expected to “be at capacity” in about 15 years.
When questioned about the project’s timeline, Howard said permits and other preliminary design factors need to be secured, but “ideally, with construction, we could be looking about 2 1/2 years.”
