World Waste Technologies, Inc. announces progress on renewable energy platform

Citation

(2008), "World Waste Technologies, Inc. announces progress on renewable energy platform", Pigment & Resin Technology, Vol. 37 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/prt.2008.12937aab.028

World Waste Technologies, Inc. announces progress on renewable energy platform

Environment and safety

World Waste Technologies, Inc. announces progress on renewable energy platform

World Waste Technologies, Inc. has announced that it is shifting its focus and will now concentrate on producing renewable energy from post-recycled residual municipal waste (MSW). To accelerate the development of this renewable energy platform, the company plans to add a small-scale gasifier to its Anaheim Research Facility in order to demonstrate and gain operating experience with the unique aspects of MSW gasification. This enhanced research capability is also expected to enable piloting technologies related to the company's previously announced provisional patent for ethanol production from catalytic conversion of syngas.

Consistent with this new direction, the company also announced recently that it has been short-listed in the selection process to provide a total of 60mW of renewable electric power to a major California utility. World Waste has made a good faith deposit to the utility of $60,000 for each of three sites in order to continue negotiations toward completing power purchase agreements with the utility. Each of the three projects are expected to process approximately 1,000 tons per day of residual municipal solid waste that has already gone through curbside recycling programs or certified recycling facilities, and which is currently destined for landfills.

World Waste's short-listing selection was made in response to a request for offers made by the utility as part of its effort to increase the amount of energy generated from renewable sources. This mandate exists due to the California Renewable Portfolio Standard established by SB 1078 in 2002 which requires certain retail electricity sellers to have 20 percent of their retail sales come from renewable energy sources. The California Energy Commission reports that currently only 11 percent of the State's electricity is derived from renewable sources.

John Pimentel, CEO of World Waste Technologies, Inc. said, “We believe a significant opportunity in California and numerous other states has been created by the desire to produce more power using renewable fuels. The Schwarzenegger Administration has expressed a desire to raise the California requirements to 33% renewable sources by 2020, and at least 22 other states have instituted some form of Renewable Portfolio Standard. We are delighted to be in the process to negotiate for these three long-term power purchase agreements.”

Pimentel continued, “For each site we will need to specify the facility location, secure long-term municipal solid waste feedstock contracts, obtain relevant permits, and design, finance and construct each facility. Ultimately we plan to design, build, own and operate facilities nationwide in conjunction with companies and government agencies that currently process various municipal solid waste and urban green waste streams.”

Ethanol/specialty chemicals research

World Waste is continuing its research on production of ethanol and specialty chemicals using municipal solid waste as a feedstock. Substantial research and development has been performed using gasification, enzymatic and acid hydrolysis processes to produce liquid fuels and small-scale production has been demonstrated by the Company's R&D partner, Applied Power Concepts, Inc. The economics of larger scale production for this process are being analyzed, and the company is working on plans to convert its Anaheim facility to produce renewable energy, specialty chemicals and liquid fuels.

Pulp production

World Waste's original facility in Anaheim has processed over 2,500 tons of MSW and has produced over 400 tons of wetlap pulp. Papermaking customers reported that WWT's Quadra-C pulp met their specifications and WWT did successfully sell the product as a raw material for the manufacture of packaging grade paper. However, as previously disclosed, WWT management concluded that the Anaheim facility was not viable for commercial scale pulp production due to several factors, including: the small scale of the physical plant, the need to install expensive wastewater treatment equipment on site, and mechanical issues related to equipment supplied by specific vendors which did not support sustained 24/7 operation of the facility. These factors resulted in higher operating costs and lower yields than initially expected. The company wrote off its assets related to the paper making equipment at the end of 2006 and has begun liquidating some of that equipment to clear floor space and generate partial funding for the facility's new capabilities to support the renewable energy platform. Pimentel added, “In Anaheim, we have learned a substantial amount about processing biomass from MSW and making pulp. We believe that under the right circumstances it may be possible to produce wetlap in other, larger scale locations. However, at this juncture, we believe the opportunities in renewable energy and ethanol are more promising.”