Dive Brief:

• A Trevose, PA company is looking to construct a 50,000 square foot waste-to-energy plant that would use municipal solid waste to create a compound that would then be used as fuel to generate electricity.
• Delta Thermo Energy’s president, Robert Van Naarden, recently told Patterson City Council members that the proposed WTE plant’s technology was developed in Germany, South Korea, and Japan. The technology converts trash into fuel through hydrothermal decomposition.
• The proposed four-acre plant would cost $45 to $55 million to build, and while in operation, it will produce no noise and no odor, Van Naarden said. In such a facility, trash is put in a pit and cooked in a pressurized system which produces a pulverized substance that is burnt to create electricity.

Dive Insight:

A trash-burning WTE plant that will create no odors and no noise sounds far-fetched, and Patterson city officials were skeptical of the claim. But if it is truly odorless, such a facility could be a model for others, and a game-changer here in the U.S.