August 2006
Imagine a process that could take municipal solid waste and in an environmentally safe process transform it into steam and other useful by-products. Koochiching County and the City of International Falls are supporting the creation of the Renewable Energy Clean Air Project (RECAP) that utilizes plasma gasification technology to transform the waste into energy. As our landfills continue to fill and the cost of land-filling increases, RECAP represents an environmental and economic solution. The county and city have partnered with Coronal, LLC to try to make RECAP a reality.
The $30 million facility, which would be located in International Falls, would be the first of it's kind in the United States, although there are several similar facilities operating in Japan. As it's currently conceived, the waste-to-energy project would require 36,000 tons of municipal waste annually and would generate approximately 40 MMBtu of synthetic gas that can be sold or used to produce approximately 3-4 MW of electricity. Marketable solid by-products are produced so nothing goes to the landfill. Plasma gasification systems are environmentally clean. They work at extremely hot temperatures in an oxygen-deprived setting that produces ultra low emissions.
Project funding would be divided between federal, state, and local sources. The State of Minnesota in the 2006 bonding bill allocated $2.5 million toward the project. Efforts are underway to secure additional federal dollars. Additional funds are being pursued for a feasibility study that will help quantify operational, economic, and environmental questions. It is hoped that once the feasibility study is concluded, and additional funding is leveraged, construction could begin in 2007. This project would employ 15 people and would generate a great deal of interest throughout the country.
To read Minnesota Public Radio's coverage of this exiting new project
click
here.
