As Yamhill County government pursues a study of alternatives to expanding the footprint of Riverbend Landfill, neighbors are advocating for a new approach to waste disposal.
Known as "gasification," this developing technology burns waste at 20,000 degrees Fahrenheit, which breaks down all organic material in the waste and converts it to hydrogen and carbon monoxide.
Best of all, it's an alternative disposal technique that's already attracted the attention of Waste Management Inc., owners of the county landfill.
In March, Waste Management announced a joint venture with Bend-based InEnTec, whose founders adapted plasma incineration - a technology originally considered for disposal of radioactive waste from the Hanford Nuclear Reservation - to commercial use.
"It's pretty appealing," said Ramsey McPhillips, a leading opponent of the Riverbend expansion, who has been conducting his own research into alternative disposal methods.
Especially intriguing, McPhillips adds, is that the resulting hydrogen and carbon monoxide can be further processed into ethanol, methanol, even synthetic diesel fuel and gasoline, making the landfill a source of alternative energy, as Waste Management has announced plans to do by capturing methane emissions from the existing Riverbend landfill.
"It takes 30 to 50 years for garbage in a landfill to degrade to produce methane. Our process essentially does something equivalent in a matter of seconds," said InEnTec founder Jeff Surma in an interview with the Bend Bulletin newspaper. "We can capture the energy value in waste in seconds rather than years."
But while McPhillips and other opponents (many neighboring property owners) are hopeful that such technology could find a home in Yamhill County, Waste Management officials caution that such applications are still a ways off.
"We're in a joint venture (with InEnTec) to develop the technology - right now, it's been proven to handle specific types of waste streams, namely medical and commercial waste," said Wes Muir, Waste Management's director of corporate communications. "Residential waste requires a lot more processing and prep work before it can be gasified."
Residential waste, or "mixed solid waste" is made up of many types of organic and inorganic materials, as the name implies. Such waste would have to be sorted and likely ground to a uniform size prior to gasification.
Another issue, Muir said, is scalability. While gasifiers presently in operation can handle up to 25 tons a day, a mixed-waste operation would have to process at least 125 tons daily to be cost-effective.
While the waste stream coming into Riverbend is more than large enough, gasification would require multiple units and preprocessing equipment, representing an investment of at least $150 million, according to Riverbend spokeswoman Jackie Lang.
"It's one of those projects that's still in the early stages," she said. "A project of that size would require some form of public investment, higher disposal fees, and somehow have the authority to dictate the waste be sent to that facility in order to ensure its success." (Newberg Garbage and Western Oregon Waste are not so required by their present franchise agreements with the county.)
McPhillips, however, has received a letter of interest from Surma, indicating that InEnTech itself might fund the capital costs.
"Depending on the final project parameters," Surma wrote, "InEnTec would typically be willing to build (with available incentives), own and operate the facility itself, so your community would not necessarily be required to pay for the entire system." He added that the firm would expect to receive tipping fees similar to those presently charged to the county for disposal.
"Only when the county denies the expansion will InEnTec and Waste Management have incentive to do this," McPhillips said. "Waste Management may say InEnTec is not viable at this time... but reject the expansion and then ask the question of viability. (The equipment) is expensive, but InEnTec sees the opportunity to make money here as energy generators."
"This gives the county the opportunity to play hardball in negotiations and open up the discussion on rates and expansion," he added.
But while not giving it the green light, Muir refused to rule out gasification as an eventual possibility for Yamhill County.
"We've talked about it with county officials - it's just not ready yet," he said. "This is probably the most promising new technology out there."
For more information, including an instructional video, visit the company's Web site at www.inentec.com
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