Canwest News Service
June 27, 2008
Edmonton will soon become the first city in the world to start turning
its solid waste into liquid fuel.
The city has signed an agreement with two Canadian biofuel companies
to build a plant that will take regular garbage out of landfills and turn
it into ethanol.
The new facility will be at the city's main waste-management centre.
When complete in late 2010, it should be producing 36 million litres
of synthetic cellulosic ethanol per year.
Those behind the initiative are calling it a huge step towards sustainable,
environmentally friendly energy. Producing ethanol this way has a number
of benefits: it produces lower greenhouse-gas emissions than allowing
the waste to decompose in a landfill; it doesn't use valuable agricultural
land as plant-based ethanol does; and it will cut down on landfill space
in the city.
Partially funded by the provincial government, the waste-to-fuel plant
is a joint venture of the city, GreenField Ethanol and Enerkem. An Ontario-based
company, GreenField is the country's leading ethanol producer. Montreal's
Enerkem is a biofuel technology company.
The city is contributing the land -- and the waste -- for the project,
which will use Enerkem technology. GreenField is in charge of the plant's
construction and will run it when it's complete.
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