All the garbage collected from the city of Edmonton can be used to produce biofuel. Last week, the city officials announced that Enerkem, a company based in Montreal began the construction of a $80 million plant that will be capable to turn the town’s landfill into biofuel.
According to the company, the project is the first of its kind in the world. “With Enerkem’s help, 90 percent of the city’s waste will be saved from landfills,” said Enerkem CEO, Vincent Chornet. The plant is expected to be completed by the end of 2011 and then it will be able to convert 100,000 tonnes of garbage into 36 million liters of ethanol, every year.
“The biofuels facility will reduce greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to taking away from the roads 42,000 cars every year,” said Roy Neehall, manager of the city’s waste management branch.
Garbage from all over the city will be collected to the landfill where whatever is left after composting and recycling will be shredded, dehydrated, then converted into ethanol and methanol. Chornet stated that once the new plant will be up and running, it will generate enough fuel to power about 400,000 vehicles a year.
[Source: CBC News]
Sigh. Should be making Butanol instead.