US firm develops ethanol from waste

Artistic impression of the proposed plantCalifornia-based Fulcrum BioEnergy Inc is all set economically produce renewable ethanol from landfill garbage.

The project is expected to convert 90,000 tons of post-recycled municipal solid waste (MSW), the amount of trash produced by a city with a population of 165,000, into 10.5 million gallons of ethanol per year. With long-term feedstock contracts in place, Fulcrum expects its cost of production to be less than USD1 a gallon, significantly below that of today’s conventional ethanol production.

With the ability to produce 120 gallons of ethanol from each ton of MSW, Fulcrum’s initial projects across the U.S. will have the capacity to produce one billion gallons of ethanol annually.

“The experiment opens the door to our large development programme that will reduce our country’s dependence on foreign oil, lower greenhouse gas emissions and create new green jobs,” said E. James Macias, President and CEO.

The Sierra BioFuels Plant, located approximately 20 miles east of Reno, Nevada in Storey County, is scheduled to begin operations in 2011 and will be one of America's first large-scale waste-to-ethanol facilities.

By utilising MSW as its feedstock, Fulcrum will produce a biofuel that reduces greenhouse gas emissions by more than 75 per cent on a lifecycle basis without causing any indirect land-use impacts or straining the country's food supply.