New Bedford waste-to-gas test a success, Ze-gen says
Providence Business News
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The Demo Plant in New Bedford has been
processing solid waste to produce a gaseous
synthetic fuel that includes high
concentrations of carbon monoxide and
hydrogen gas. Impurities are bound into the
solid slag, the company says.
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NEW BEDFORD – Preliminary data from its
proof-of-concept facility in New Bedford confirm the
efficacy of Ze-gen Inc.’s waste-to-energy model, the
company says.
“Our positive test results are arriving at a time when
fossil fuel prices are reaching historical record
levels, and this offers one more renewable energy source
to meet the energy requirements of the country,” Ze-gen
President and CEO Bill Davis said in a statement
yesterday.
Ze-gen’s New Bedford gasification facility – which
received final approval for operations in January 2007
from the solid waste and air divisions of the Mass.
Department of Environmental Protection, and began
operating in October – converts biomass from
construction and demolition debris, municipal solid
waste and old automobile tires into a mixture of carbon
monoxide and volatile hydrogen gas.
Data presented at the recent 16th North American Waste
to Energy Conference in Philadelphia by Scott Fraser,
Ze-gen’s senior vice president of engineering, indicate
that the demo plant is consistently producing synthetic
gas with a combined carbon monoxide and hydrogen content
of more than 70 percent.
That high-quality “syngas” is suitable for a variety of
renewable-energy uses. The company says it can be used
in place of natural gas or residual oil in industrial
burners and boilers; it can be used to generate
electricity; and it can be processed into biodiesel or
other liquid fuels.
The nation’s biomass potential – estimated by the U.S.
Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Department of
Energy (DOE) at more than 1.3 billion tons per year
–“represents an enormous domestic renewable resource
that is currently underutilized as an energy supply,”
Ze-gen added. The company and its technology were the
subject of a recent feature on the Science Channel.
Ze-gen Inc. – a Boston-based renewable energy company
with a demonstration facility in New Bedford – is
developing gasification technology for the conversion of
wood debris and other solid waste into “syngas,” a
mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen gas that can be
burned in place of natural gas in conventional boilers
and generators. For more information, visit
www.ze-gen.com.
Posted June 25, 2008
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