In the United States (US), the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) and Vehicle Technologies Office (VTO) have announced US$6.9 million in funding for nine projects to support local waste-to-energy management solutions for transportation energy needs.
Organic waste streams from food waste, municipal wastewater sludge and solid waste, and manure are a key feedstock for producing biofuels and bioproducts.
However, these waste streams represent one of the largest sources of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and contribute to water, soil, and air quality pollution.
In addition, waste management costs for treatment, stabilization, hauling, and disposal are considerable, and municipal landfills can contaminate soil and water.
Identify waste-to-energy solutions
This funding will support local communities’ plan and identify waste-to-energy solutions for their waste streams, and also help reduce other impacts associated with waste collection and landfilling, including reducing heavy vehicle traffic, odors, and litter.
Located across six states, these selected projects will help sustainably manage and recover potential clean energy sources from local community waste streams using innovative and cost-effective technologies to produce low-carbon biofuels.
This funding will benefit communities and transit authorities with waste-to-energy solutions and support the Federal government’s commitment to developing cutting-edge technologies that create jobs for local communities and achieve a secure energy future.
Organic waste management presents economic, environmental, and health burdens for communities across the United States. By advancing novel technologies to convert this waste into valuable energy resources, these collaborative investments will help solve local waste management challenges and support a more secure and resilient future, said Jeff Marootian, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE).
Recognizing that local communities may be at different stages in their sustainable waste management planning efforts, the selected projects will address the waste-to-energy (WtE) needs through two topic areas – Topic Area 1: Feasibility Study Development Analyses; and Topic Area 2: Design Work and Experimental Validation.
Topic Area 1
Topic Area 1 is aimed at helping move communities beyond a conceptualization phase by supporting more in-depth feasibility or scoping analysis.
It will support feasibility study development, including activities such as feasibility studies, identification of transportation use cases, and sustainability indicator baselining.
The following eight projects were selected in Topic Area 1:
- Dairy Methane Utilization for Clean Hydrogen Production – California Dairy Research Foundation, Davis, California (CA); US$750,000. This project will assess the environmental and economic feasibility of converting methane from dairy manure into hydrogen. The study will instead assess various hydrogen production pathways, including steam methane reforming and electrolysis.
- Project “SMRF”: Establishing ‘Virtual Landfills’ and Transportation Alternatives to Address Existing MSW and Landfill Constraints in Northwest Arkansas – City of Berryville, Berryville, Arkansas (AR); US$745,932. This project will evaluate the establishment of primary and secondary materials recovery facility infrastructure to enable more efficient municipal solid waste (MSW) separations and eventual conversion to fuels such as renewable natural gas (RNG), methanol, and hydrogen.
- Organic Waste Energy Conversion – City of Reedley, Reedley, California (CA); US$750,000. This project will evaluate a closed-loop system to produce renewable natural gas, electricity, and/or hydrogen from agricultural food processing waste within a 100-mile radius. The project will test seasonal and geographic blends to inform economic and environmental analysis.
- RNG Production from Organic Wastes for Local Transportation in Bloomington-Normal – Ecology Action Center, Normal, Illinois (IL); US$513,185. This project will perform a waste audit from a 75-mile radius to evaluate co-digestion to RNG. The project is testing a new anaerobic digester technology to evaluate the benefits of a lower-energy mixing approach.
- HARVEST: Hydrogen Assessment from Remote Valorization of Energy Sources Through Organic Waste – GTI Energy, Des Plaines, Illinois (IL); Walcott, Iowa (IA); Fair Oaks, Indiana (IN); Middleton, Wisconsin (WI); US$559,527. The project will assess a system to produce fuel-cell quality hydrogen from organic waste at three locations: the Fair Oaks Dairy in Indiana, the I-80 truck stop in Iowa, and a dairy cooperative in Wisconsin. The project will analyze a variety of impacts including the generation of fertilizer as a co-product, air quality, job creation, and diversification of farm revenue.
- Waste to CLEAN Fuels for Decarbonizing Transportation in the Rio Grande Valley Region – Houston Advanced Research Center, Houston, Texas (TX); US$748,194. This project will investigate the feasibility of capturing waste at wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) in the Rio Grande Valley (RGV) and converting it into renewable fuels such as biogas, RNG, and hydrogen. 25 candidate WWTP sites have been identified and this project will identify the individual transportation fuel use cases (biogas, RNG, and hydrogen) for each site.
- Food to Fuel: Exploring the Feasibility of Recycling Wasted Food to Power Montgomery County’s Bus Fleet – Montgomery County, Rockville, Maryland (MD); US$750,000. This project will evaluate the resource potential and technical feasibility of converting wastewater residuals to hydrogen for use in the County’s regional bus fleet. The project will also complete a siting analysis for an in-county organics processing facility.
- Closed Loop Organic Waste to Transportation Fuel Virtual Fueling Station – New Jersey Clean Cities Coalition, Elizabeth, New Jersey (NJ); US$500,000. This project will perform a waste analysis of 44 New Jersey higher education campuses and perform a cost-benefit analysis of using waste-derived fuels for on-site fleet usage versus utilizing food waste recycling facilities versus business-as-usual practices. The project will also establish a verified emissions reduction tracking system.
Topic Area 2
Topic Area 2 will support and advance more detailed engineering design work for communities that are further along and may have already identified potential solutions for their waste/transportation needs.
Outcomes from this Topic Area will include FEL-3 engineering design work, detailed siting analysis, transportation fuel testing, experimental testing and validation, and generation of data for air quality assessment (Phase 1).
Upon the conclusion of Phase 1 activities, recipients are eligible for additional Phase 2 funding which will allow for the construction and operation of a pilot-scale system designed in Phase 1.
The following project was selected in Topic Area 2:
- Conversion of Biosolids and Biogas to Hydrogen for Transportation – Las Virgenes Municipal Water District, Calabasas, California (CA); US$1.6 million. This project proposes to design a system that collects biogas and biosolids to generate clean hydrogen. The proposed approach will use on-site biochar as a catalyst for reforming to reduce capital and operating costs and to enable more modular biogas reforming technologies. The project will design 1-2 tonnes of biosolids/day system capable of producing 100 kg/day of fuel cell grade hydrogen.
