WHOA.  Where did this come from??

 

Cleveland signs agreement to build small fuel plant fueled by municipal waste

By John Funk, The Plain Dealer February 11, 2010, 6:59PM

 

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The city of Cleveland has signed a $1.5 million agreement with a New Jersey company to design a small power plant fueled by municipal waste.

 

The Princeton Environmental Group will design a 20-megawatt power plant for the city's Ridge Road Transfer Station. A megawatt is 1 million watts.

 

The plant, the first of its type in the country, would cost about $200 million and employ about 100 people. It could supply about 6 percent of Cleveland Public Power's 350 megawatt peak load.

 

 

If the Cleveland plant is built, Princeton intends to build a manufacturing plant here in three to four years to build gasifiers, Tien said.

 

MORE AT http://www.cleveland.com/business/index.ssf/2010/02/cleveland_signs_agreement_to_b.html

What an excellent project. I cannot believe that we will be the FIRST in the country to deploy this technology.

Huh, that's cool, but....

 

"A megawatt is 1 million watts."

 

*Cue head explosion*

 

Thank you captain obvious.

^ you're assuming that the average PD reader can observe the obvious.  I'm not so sure.

This is a great project for the city.  We'll reduce the amount of garbage we transport to landfills which will save money and we'll be producing electricity at the same time.  The electricity rates from this plant will probably still be pretty high, but the fact that Cleveland could become the center of U.S. production of this technology more than makes up for it.

^Agreed.  This is GREAT news for the city!  I hope that we will be able to build toe either expand the new facility or build more than one plant in the future. 

Didn't Columbus do this like 20 years ago and close the thing soon thereafter?

A lot of the trash in Ohio landfills is trucked in from the east coast.  I'm glad we're building one of these plants here, but we need to put a few in Jersey and Queens too. 

Didn't Columbus do this like 20 years ago and close the thing soon thereafter?

 

Nope. This will be the first one of these in the US.

Now let's work on capturing the methane given off at the sewage treatment plant....

WHOA. Where did this come from??

 

 

 

This project has been brewing for the past five years. I wrote an article about it for Sun News in 2005 or 2006, and then there was this piece....

 

http://67.23.32.13/blog/marc-lefkowitz/closing-the-energy-loop

 

 

Closing the energy loop

Submitted by Marc Lefkowitz  |  Last edited September 1, 2006 - 11:50am

Posted in Conservation and efficiencyCity Sustainability Program| Marc Lefkowitz's blogLogin or register to post comments»

 

Cogeneration is one of those technologies that’s old enough to be new again. As costs skyrocket and concerns about air quality spread, interest grows in cleaner, more efficient energy production. Cogeneration may fit the bill — it doubles the efficiency of burning coal by capturing and reusing the hot air or steam that conventional power companies view as ‘waste’ (roughly 60 to 70% of the total energy is lost as waste heat).

 

Cleveland Thermal Chilled Water Distribution, LLC — which already pipes steam and chilled water services to downtown office buildings (but not electric power) — is proposing to build a cogeneration plant at E. 26th Street just north of Lakeside Avenue. This would be the first commercial cogeneration facility in Cleveland.

 

The city of Cleveland might sign on as a partner in the venture. First, EcoCity Cleveland has agreed to hire a consulting engineer to review Cleveland Thermal's proposal for its environmental best practices and economic feasibility. The consultant's report will be submitted to the city of Cleveland before it makes a recommendation to city-owned Cleveland Public Power, a potential customer for the electricity portion of the plant.

 

How does cogeneration fit into the regional agenda for an advanced energy future? For example, has electric utility deregulation made the business environment more or less favorable to "new" technologies and regional distribution networks?

Didn't Columbus do this like 20 years ago and close the thing soon thereafter?

 

Nope. This will be the first one of these in the US.

The first of this design, not the first powerplant to use garbage as a fuel source.

Now let's work on capturing the methane given off at the sewage treatment plant....

 

The GM truck plant at Fort Wayne uses methane captured from a landfill and piped eight miles to fuel the plant's boilers. The city is investigating capturing methane from its wastewater treatment facility to generate electricity. That was surprising to me; in 1961 I worked at GE Apparatus Service, a business that repaired and rebuilt heavy industrial electrical equipment. I'm sure a couple of our techs had to go the the wastewater plant then to work on a generator that was driven by an industrial engine fueled by gas from the sewage treatment. They didn't smell very nice when they got back.

Columbus had a trash incinerator for power generation; it was closed due to community concern about dioxin emissions despite meeting EPA guidelines.  The proposal for Cleveland involves gasification rather than direct incineration.

 

http://www.princetonenvironmental.com/gasification.html

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasma_arc_waste_disposal

Cleveland Waste-to-Energy Power Plant Could Make Eco History

 

 

Waste-to-energy is already commonplace in American landfills, as more than 12 percent of our solid waste is burned annually to generate energy. However, many times this energy only benefits the landfill operations. If Cleveland’s plant receives the necessary funding, it would mark the first American power plant that utilizes this process.

 

Princeton Environmental Group says its systems can handle as much as 2,000 tons of waste per day. However, the city of Cleveland has not revealed its annual waste output. Cleveland has also yet to work out the financing details for construction of the new plant. According to Mayor Frank Jackson, the plant would initially provide 68 new jobs, but that number could possibly expand to 100 employees.

 

The city partnered with RecycleBank in 2009 to provide an extra incentive for residents to recycle, earning points that can later be redeemed as gifts cards.

 

http://earth911.com/news/2010/02/16/cleveland-waste-to-energy-power-plant-could-make-eco-history/

Hmm...sounds like some of the eco cred of this facility may be bogus:

 

http://www.wcpn.org/WCPN/news/29935/

Hmm...sounds like some of the eco cred of this facility may be bogus:

 

http://www.wcpn.org/WCPN/news/29935/

 

Not sure about bogus, maybe unproven. If this technology is being used already in Japan I would be willing to be environmental studies have been done.

Hmm...sounds like some of the eco cred of this facility may be bogus:

 

http://www.wcpn.org/WCPN/news/29935/

 

They said they were skeptical, but used absolutely no facts to show that this technology is harmful to the environment.  You can't please everyone, especially hardcore environmentalists.  If this technology puts one atom of CO2 into the atmosphere they will cry foul.

 

Bottom line is that this reduces the amount of trash sent to the landfill (reducing the amount of methane produced by decomposition) AND generates electricity.  So we are reducing the amount of land necessary to store trash and reducing our demand for electricity from coal-fired power plants.  How environmentalists don't love this technology is beyond me.

"How environmentalists don't love this technology is beyond me."

 

Because to hardcore so-called environmentalists, human being=bad.  they would just assume we all go away.  They seem to think anything a non-human life form does is acceptable and "natural", and is therefor okay and can't possibly have any negative effects. Anything a human does is of course bad.  It's as if the world is supposed to be held in some kind of stasis which they have self-determined is desirable and correct.

OK...those sound like slight overreactions to what may or may not be legitimate skepticism about this project.  This would hardly be the first case of a company overselling its green credentials in order to win concessions from consumers/municipalities, etc- it's not exactly far-fetched.  After all, burning garbage to make energy has been around for a long time, that alone is not what was supposed to make this project exciting.  And not what was supposed to make this project in line to receive major subsidies from our strapped public sector.

Now let's work on capturing the methane given off at the sewage treatment plant....

 

Great idea, but all of the NEORSD sewer treatment plants utilize aerobic digestion (tanks are open) instead of closed (anaerobic) digestion where the latter is ideal for methane capture.  Euclid's waster water treatment plant is anaerobic.

 

IMO, if we could figure this out; our humanure would be best used to power an RTA cng fleet.  I believe fuel expenditures are about 12% of RTA's budget.

Europe Finds Clean Energy in Trash, but U.S. Lags

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/13/science/earth/13trash.html

 

By contrast, no new waste-to-energy plants are being planned or built in the United States, the Environmental Protection Agency says — even though the federal government and 24 states now classify waste that is burned this way for energy as a renewable fuel, in many cases eligible for subsidies.

 

Not sure if they just missed the Cleveland effort, if it's too different to count, or if it's not far enough along to be considered by the EPA as "being planned."  Interesting article though.

^Maybe we should write to the author about Cleveland.  I'm curious to her response.

 

EDIT: can anyone find her email??  DR. ELISABETH ROSENTHAL

 

I've found her on Twitter and Facebook....

 

^That was my first thought too, but the NYT seems to keep its reporters' contact info well hidden.  The press would have been nice, but not a big deal.  Though maybe a letter to the editor would be in order.

Another interesting article by her...about decorating/artistically redesigning powerplants (particularly waste-to-fuel):

 

http://greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/13/the-incinerator-as-eye-candy/?src=busln

What ever happened to this? Couldn't get financing? If anything I hope its just on hold, not dead.

^ It's Alive!

City of Cleveland hopes to spin garbage into profits with new waste-to-energy plant

 

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The city of Cleveland wants to turn trash into cash by building a $180 million waste-to-energy plant and recycling facility at the Ridge Road transfer station.

 

The plant, fueled by 560 tons of trash a day, would be the first of its kind in the U.S. and would produce enough electricity to power about 7,500 homes. Should the city get permission to build the plant, one looming question remains: Who will pay for it?

 

City officials tout their plan as an innovative and environmentally friendly way to bolster the city's bottom line. They say Cleveland will save millions by greatly lessening the cost of trucking and dumping garbage at landfills while profiting from electricity and other products the facility can produce.

 

http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2011/05/city_of_cleveland_hopes_to_spi.html

 

^We've heard a lot about the environmental arguments for and against this project, but what about the financial end of it?  Does this make sense financially?  What's the payback period on this $180 million facility?

Finally found my article from three years ago. Like I said, this project has been kicking around a while......

 

City studies whether waste could help generate power

Thursday, August 14, 2008

By Ken Prendergast [email protected]

Brooklyn Sun Journal

 

CLEVELAND-- Cleveland Public Power will know this month whether every Cleveland home could become a source of electric power.

 

CPP is studying the feasibility of building a facility on Ridge Road that would convert municipal solid waste from every Cleveland home and business into fuel for generating electrical power.

 

If built, the conversion facility would likely be located at the city's Ridge Road Transfer Station and could result in the creation of more than 100 jobs.

 

"This project will take careful planning and investment," said Mayor Frank Jackson. "However, the end result would mean new jobs, tax revenues, an environmentally friendly alternative energy source, and will help secure Cleveland's energy future."

 

RNR Consulting, a local minority-owned firm, will conduct the study for the city, with the assistance of URS Corp.; PRFection Engineering, DLZ Ohio Inc. and Cloud and Associates.

 

Under the plan, the city could take solid waste such as yard waste, food, light paper and other nonhazardous and nonrecyclable materials and convert them into a fuel pellet. The pellets can be substituted for coal and, if there is an excess of fuel pellets created, they can be sold to other cities and utilities.

 

"The (waste-to-electricity) facility could create between 90 and 130 full-time jobs and would help CPP meet Mayor Jackson's Advanced Energy Portfolio Standard requirements," said CPP Commissioner Ivan Henderson.

 

"The project is a demonstration of the (Public Utilities) Department's commitment to provide Cleveland residents and customers with superior service while also helping to spur sustainable economic development," said Public Utilities Interim Director Barry Withers.

 

Remaining waste that can't be converted to fuel pellets would be turned to gas instead and used to generate electricity. City officials said this process has been used for 30 years in Asia and Europe and caused low environmental emissions.

 

The consulting team will perform a technical analysis of the waste-to-gas process, identify the environmental impact of the facility and evaluate the financial feasibility of the project....

 

READ MORE AT:

http://www.cleveland.com/brooklynsun/news/index.ssf?/base/news-0/1218722928172660.xml&coll=4

How does the pollution compare to a modern coal facility? And can't the county 'reduce particulates' by the fact the lakeside plant is closing at some point? Break-even, at least?

^If you're talking about particulates then I think this gasification technology produces virtually zero particulate pollution.  If it does produce some at all then I have to imagine it is much lower than the old lakeside coal burning plant.  If we're talking about CO2 then they're likely more comparable, but burning the organic trash is much better then letting it sit in a landfill and produce methane which is a much more potent GHG than CO2.  And I believe this proposed Cleveland facility would separate out the non-organic trash and send it to a landfill or recycle it.  If that's the case then this thing should be a clear environmental winner.  Unless someone comes up with plan to use the organic waste as fertilizer for our new urban farms...

Hope this thing and the wind turbines get built:

 

Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson heading to Japan to view trash-plant technology

Published: Friday, September 23, 2011, 7:00 PM    Updated: Saturday, September 24, 2011, 3:13 AM

Thomas Ott, The Plain Dealer By Thomas Ott, The Plain Dealer

 

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson will head for Japan early Sunday to study a system that converts garbage into electricity as the city awaits state permission to build a $150 million plant employing such technology.

 

Jackson will observe the "thermal gasification" process developed by the Kinsei Sangyo Co. of Takasaki. He also will try to demonstrate that Cleveland's project is viable, so the Japanese government will allow Kinsei to bid on it.

 

MSW Public Hearing Presentation Revised 2-23-11.pdf Thermal gasification involves the use high temperatures to convert trash -- minus recycled material -- to synthetic gas. The gas is burned to produce steam that powers turbines.

 

Cleveland views the technology as a clean waste-disposal alternative that can provide 6 percent of Cleveland Public Power's peak load and save the city $6 million a year in landfill fees. Public-interest groups have questioned the city's claims of low emissions and environmental benefits.

 

http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2011/09/jackson_heading_to_japan_to_vi.html

Cleveland: Opposition against trash burning plant

11:50 PM, Jan 3, 2012 

 

Written by

Dave Summers

 

CLEVELAND - The city says it's good for the environment and will save money but environmental advocates fear it will do just the opposite.

 

"There are no odors associated with it," Cleveland Utilities Commissioner Ivan Henderson said. "It has a very positive impact on the community and doesn't have any harmful pollutants associated with it."

 

Ohio Citizen Action and other watchdog groups are organizing a protest of the Cleveland plant.

 

http://www.wkyc.com/news/article/223088/45/Cleveland-Opposition-against-trash-burning-plant--

Looks good to me. One point about CO2 emissions. Anytime that you are burning "new" biomass for power it is considered a zero sum emission because most of  the alternative fuels (except wind, solar and nuke) are releasing trapped CO2. And if trash goes into the landfill, any methane produced will be burned off as flare gas, the C02 will be released anyway and none of the power will be captured. They do have nice little self contained generators in shipping containers to burn landfill gas that are becoming quite popular.

 

Lets the hope the city will have enough fuel to run it. When I was at FirstEnergy they had this big hoopla that theye were going to convert their old Burger coal plant down on the river to bio fuel, burning what I believe was some sort of switchgrass pellet. Turns out that somebody did the math wrong and there was no way to supply enough fuel to run a steam turbine of that size.

Ohio EPA to hold hearing on proposed Cleveland trash plant

Published: Saturday, January 07, 2012, 12:56 PM   

Thomas Ott, The Plain Dealer

 

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A public hearing will be held Tuesday on Cleveland's plans to build a trash-disposal plant on Ridge Road.

 

City officials who support the project say the plant will not directly burn trash but instead will use high temperatures to turn it into ash and steam. Pellets formed from the ash would be sold or used to provide some of the electricity supplied by Cleveland Public Power.

 

Supporters say the plant would be part of a comprehensive trash disposal strategy that would also include citywide recycling. They say the plant would produce safe emissions and save on the cost of hauling garbage to distant landfills.

 

http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2012/01/ohio_epa_to_hold_hearing_on_pr.html

Hearing today on Cleveland's proposed trash disposal plant

Plant would destroy trash with high heat; environmentalists are against it

By Tom Moore, Newsradio WTAM 1100

 

(Cleveland) -- A public hearing will be held Monday night on the city of Cleveland's proposal to build a plant that will destroy trash to generate electricity.

 

The hearing will be conducted by the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, which will rule on the city's permit application, and the Cleveland Divison of Air Quality. It's set for Monday, 6:00 p.m., at the Estabrook Recreation Center at 4125 Fulton Road.

 

The city says that at the plant, proposed to be at the waste transfer station on Ridge Road, they will use high temperatures to turn waste into trash and steam. Ash pellets would eventually be burned to generate some of the power supplied by Cleveland Public Power.

 

http://www.wtam.com/cc-common/news/sections/newsarticle.html?feed=122520&article=9583557#ixzz1iyZI0g2c

 

Alternatives, like creating more new hills out in Solon I guess?

Hearing today on Cleveland's proposed trash disposal plant

Plant would destroy trash with high heat; environmentalists are against it

By Tom Moore, Newsradio WTAM 1100

 

(Cleveland) -- A public hearing will be held Monday night on the city of Cleveland's proposal to build a plant that will destroy trash to generate electricity.

 

The hearing will be conducted by the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, which will rule on the city's permit application, and the Cleveland Divison of Air Quality. It's set for Monday, 6:00 p.m., at the Estabrook Recreation Center at 4125 Fulton Road.

 

The city says that at the plant, proposed to be at the waste transfer station on Ridge Road, they will use high temperatures to turn waste into trash and steam. Ash pellets would eventually be burned to generate some of the power supplied by Cleveland Public Power.

 

http://www.wtam.com/cc-common/news/sections/newsarticle.html?feed=122520&article=9583557#ixzz1iyZI0g2c

 

 

If you look at Google Maps and consider the prevailing wind directions to be from the west and the north, there's really no residential property downwind until you get to Denison to the east, and I-71 (except for three stray houses on W. 58th) to the south.  It looks like someone did their homework picking this site.

 

I work close by and have seen a lot of anti-incinerator signs....well upwind.  It seems like someone's been stirring up the neighbors.  Unfortunately, there's a certain type of "environmentalist" that is opposed to any solution to disposal/energy issues that does not place constraints on human activity.

Proposed trash-disposal plant faces tough fight with Cleveland City Council

Published: Monday, February 06, 2012, 6:02 AM   

Thomas Ott, The Plain Dealer

 

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson has made a trash-to-electricity plant the centerpiece of his new strategy for garbage disposal, but he is having trouble selling the controversial idea to the City Council.

 

Environmentalists and neighbors already have pounced. Now, council members are raising concerns about pollution, the estimated $180 million cost, the involvement of a New Jersey consultant and how the concept has been promoted.

 

"The project is fragile right now," he said. "There are a number of council members who are ready to say, 'We're not supporting this project.' "

 

http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2012/02/proposed_trash-disposal_plant.html

Cleveland Shelves Gassification Plans After Learning It Would Cost Millions of Dollars a Year

POSTED BY MAUDE L. CAMPBELL ON THU, MAR 29, 2012 AT 1:28 PM

 

Last week the City of Cleveland officially canceled its $1.5 million contract with the New Jersey businessman hired to design a trash-gassing plant the city wants on Ridge Road. The problem with the work performed by Peter Tien and his Princeton Environmental Group? Mostly he sucked at math.

 

Despite Tien’s assurances that the plant would be a moneymaker, a check of his figures showed it would actually cost millions every year, which the city determined is not the preferable flow of cash for a $200 million investment.

 

Back in February, Tien submitted reports showing that the trash-processing units would deposit an average of $40.7 million a year into city coffers. A small problem arose when it was learned that Tien had inexplicably multiplied the plant’s actual energy earnings by 10.

 

The error was caught quickly — not by the city or Tien, but by folks at Ohio Citizen Action, a nonprofit watchdog that posted a detailed accounting of Tien’s promises on its website. Correcting for Tien’s faulty math, the group learned that the city’s $40.7 million profit would more closely resemble a $17 million annual loss, a feat City Hall can accomplish any number of other ways.

 

http://www.clevescene.com/scene-and-heard/archives/2012/03/29/cleveland-shelves-gassification-plans-after-learning-it-would-cost-millions-of-dollars-a-year

^ I think there is a lesson here in all of this.

 

This Scene Magazine article was downright prophetic:

 

The Mysterious Mister Tien

 

The man who sold Cleveland on visions of prosperity isn't all he claims to be

by Maude L. Campbell

 

The city of Cleveland and Cleveland Public Power made up their minds back in 2008: A revolutionary system that would vaporize trash was definitely the way to go.

 

http://www.clevescene.com/cleveland/the-mysterious-mister-tien/Content?oid=2772517

Wow......

^ I think there is a lesson here in all of this.

 

This Scene Magazine article was downright prophetic:

 

The Mysterious Mister Tien

 

The man who sold Cleveland on visions of prosperity isn't all he claims to be

by Maude L. Campbell

 

The city of Cleveland and Cleveland Public Power made up their minds back in 2008: A revolutionary system that would vaporize trash was definitely the way to go.

 

http://www.clevescene.com/cleveland/the-mysterious-mister-tien/Content?oid=2772517

 

The lesson is that it never hurts to recrunch the numbers.  That's how Steve LaTourette's team kept the defense finance office here.