Berryville receives nearly $750,000 to study waste-to-energy project
The U.S. Department of Energy will provide $745,932 to the city of Berryville to study ways to reduce landfill constraints in Northwest Arkansas and produce fuels from waste, according to a Tuesday (Jan. 7) news release.
A public-private collaboration includes plans to develop a “virtual landfill” recycling facility to mitigate the need for a physical landfill and to produce fuel products, such as hydrogen.
The money is part of $6.9 million in funding for nine projects that support waste-to-energy projects for transportation energy needs. The DOE’s Bioenergy Technology Office (BETO) and Vehicle Technologies Office (VTO) announced the funding for the projects across six states.
According to a one-page project summary, Berryville along with Syntex Industries, the University of Arkansas, Enviroscapes Ecological Consulting, and Via Analytics looks to develop a “virtual landfill” molecular recycling facility to remove the need for a physical landfill. This “Sustainable Molecular Recycling Facility (SMRF)” will be integrated with a series of modular systems or Baby SMRFs to process waste into pellets that will then serve as a front-end feedstock to be fed into a central facility or Papa SMRF that combines pyrolysis and gasification into a process that can pivot production into various refined fuel products, including hydrogen and hydrogen carriers.
The project summary shows the study objectives include exploring options to reduce or eliminate landfill pressures through chemical recycling or a virtual landfill through the production of refuse-derived materials that can be used as a feedstock in a proprietary “pivot plant” design; evaluating the potential to produce renewable fuel for community vehicles for external sale; establishing a community environmental and education center for outreach and demonstration; and attracting private companies for technology, market access for fuels and additional funding.
According to the news release, Berryville’s project “will evaluate the establishment of primary and secondary materials recovery facility infrastructure to enable more efficient municipal solid waste separations and eventual conversion to fuels (renewable natural gas, methanol, and hydrogen).”
Berryville’s project is one of the nine selected projects that are expected to help manage and recover potential clean energy sources from waste streams using innovation and cost-effective technologies to produce low-carbon biofuels, the release shows. These waste streams are one of the largest sources of greenhouse gas emissions and contribute to water, soil and air quality pollution.
“Organic waste management presents economic, environmental and health burdens for communities across the United States,” said Jeff Marootian, principal deputy assistant secretary for DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. “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.”
Link here for the full project list.