Dive Brief:
- BioEnergy Hawaii LLC, a developer of waste treatment and alternative energy systems based in Kailua-Kona, HI, announced plans to construct a resource recovery facility on the island of Hawaii.
- The $50 million plant will take municipal solid waste from local waste collectors and divert 70% of the waste from the West Hawaii Sanitary Landfill.
- The company plans to promote a "closed-loop" waste recovery system by motivating local haulers to convert sanitation trucks into vehicles that run on compressed natural gas (CNG).
Dive Insight:
The plant will designate the incoming waste into one of three categories: recyclable commodities, organics, and solid fuel.
Recyclables will become commodities as the materials enter the local recycling commodity market. Organics like food and green waste will go through an anaerobic digestion (AD) process that will yield fertilizer and compost. In addition, biogas will be produced and recovered from the AD operations. Biogas has multiple uses including acting as an alternative transportation fuel, bio-CNG, electricity generation, and renewable natural gas (RNG).
Paper, textiles, plastics, and wood will be transformed into post-recycled engineered fuel, which is used in thermal energy conversion.
