Enerkem is proving to be a Canadian waste-to-energy success story. It has several projects under construction and in the pipeline and it has managed to attract top-tier strategic investors and VCs. Valero is a good catch. It has 10 ethanol refineries across the United States, making it the largest supplier of ethanol in the country. It also has made several investments in next-gen ethanol technology companies, including Mascoma, Zeachem, Terrabon, Solix Biofuels — and now Enerkem. “With Valero joining Waste Management as a strategic investor, Enerkem becomes one of the very few renewable products companies that is aligned with industry leaders from both upstream and downstream parts of the business,” said Vincent Chornet, president and chief executive officer of Enerkem, in a press release.

They’re doing it in Edmonton with Enerkem, which is turning sorted municipal solid waste into ethanol. They’re doing it in Ottawa with Plasco Energy, which is turning residual municipal waste into syngas that’s used for generating electricity. Trash giant Waste Management, an investor in Enerkem, has been investing heavily in technologies that can cleanly convert waste into useful chemicals and fuels in a safe way that releases virtually no emissions into the atmosphere — at least not, obviously, until any end fuel product is burned. But this fuel product would be displacing a fossil fuel using materials that might otherwise degrade in a landfill and release methane or contaminate groundwater.

This is an area where I part with many of my friends in the environmental community, and believe me, I’ve had my share of debates over a beer. But the landfill option is not better, in my view, and while I fully support waste diversion programs I don’t believe we can ever get to 100 per cent diversion. There’s a lot of wood waste, clothing, unrecyclable plastics, and even certain paper and plastic products can only be recycled so many times. What happens with this garbage? Advanced energy-from-waste technologies, like those being built by Enerkem and Plasco, can help municipalities manage their waste in their own back yard and get a source of energy in return.

I’m not saying we should drink the Kool-Aid, no questions asked. But at the same time, I’m a believer that the technology has changed over the years, the economics have improved, and some systems being piloted and built for commercial use today are dramatically different than the dirty incinerators built in the 1970s. Skepticism is fine, and encouraged, but not when it’s accompanied by outright dismissal or repeated attempts to compare today’s technology with what stirred up controversy 20 years ago.

It’s a conversation Toronto needs to have.

The loan guarantees will back Enerkem’s construction of its landmark waste-to-biofuels project in Pontotoc, Mississippi, which will transform Northeast Mississippi’s municipal solid waste into ethanol. “Enerkem’s biorefinery operation in Mississippi – a 300 ton-per-day facility located on the Three Rivers landfill site – will initially produce 10 million gallons/36 million litres of ethanol annually from sorted municipal solid waste and will reduce the pressure to landfill,” according to the company, which expects to create more than 70 permanent jobs.

It would be nice if our federal government offered more loan guarantees of this sort…

Plasco chairman and CEO Rod Bryden called the latest investment in the company “a remarkable expression of confidence.” The company is targeting its efforts at North America, Europe and China. It has two pilot facilities already — a 100-tonne-per-day plant in Ottawa and a much smaller plant in Spain — but a 300 tonne-per-day facility is in the works in Red Deer, Alberta, and is expected to be completed in 2012. One can only assume that the Ottawa facility has worked out its kinks, otherwise I can’t see any responsible investor throwing down $100 million to pursue commercial projects.

This is good news for Plasco and another shot of confidence in the emerging market for new energy-from-waste technologies. Montreal-based Enerkem is another Canadian company riding this wave with its ethanol-from-waste systems, having recently raised nearly $54 million from Waste Management and a number of venture capital firms. Don Roberts, vice-chair of CIBC World Market’s clean technology and green energy team, recently told me that energy-from-waste was one of three main areas to watch over the coming years, along with energy efficiency and water. He may be right.

Enerkem uses a thermochemical fluidized-bed process to gasify municipal solid waste (organics, wood waste, plastics), demolition wood, and agricultural/forest residues. The resulting syngas is cleaned and, using a proven catalyst, can be turned into a variety of end products, including methanol, ethanol and high-value olefins (plastics). The company is in the process of building a waste-to-ethanol facility in Mississippi (75 million litres a year) and an Edmonton plant (36 million litres a year) that will also turn sorted municipal solid waste into ethanol. The Edmonton facility is being done in partnership with Greenfield Ethanol, Canada’s largest independent ethanol producer. Meanwhile, in Westbury, Quebec, the company has a commercial-scale demonstration facility that currently turns old wooden hydro poles into ethanol.

Rho Ventures, Braemar Energy Ventures and BDR Capital, all existing investors, participated in the financing round with Waste Management, along with new investor Cycle Capital. “This financing round validates Enerkem’s business and advances our path towards leadership in the waste and advanced fuels markets,” said Chornet in a release. In an earlier story (July 2008) I wrote for Greentech Media, Chornet said that burning waste or burning the syngas created from waste is, well, a waste. Based on electricity and ethanol prices at the time, a company can make three times more revenue per tonne of processed waste compared to a plant that simply burns its syngas to generate electricity, he said. Chornet also said Enerkem’s process is profitable with oil at $50 a barrel and if the company can get a competitive tipping fee to take the garage.

Another company that’s overlooked by U.S. media is Ottawa-based Cyrium Technologies, which just announced record performance from its commercially manufactured multi-junction solar cells, which are based on quantum dot technology. “Cyrium’s first generation solar cells offer efficiencies of 40 per cent or higher together with a nearly constant conversion efficiency for solar concentrations from 200 to greater than 1,000 suns,” the company said. This is a big deal, given that the other “records” touted to date, which range from 40.8 to 42.8 conversion efficiency (these claims are in dispute — see Wikipedia entry), have been limited to the lab. Cyrium, on the other hand, is actually manufacturing limited quantities of its cells for testing by potential customers. And the company isn’t resting on its laurels, either. “Cyrium anticipates its second generation product will reach 43 per cent efficiency within one year and third generation products are targeted to be at 45 per cent within two years,” the company said.

Meanwhile, Montreal-based Enerkem has been granted a permit to commence construction of what it’s calling the “world’s first commercial municipal waste-to-biofuels facility.” The $70 million facility, located in Edmonton, Alberta, will take municipal solid waste that’s left over after recycling and composting and will convert that waste into ethanol using Enerkem’s process. The project is a joint-venture between Enerkem (technology supplier) and Greenfield Ethanol (ethanol producer). “This unprecedented project is set to change the dynamics of the waste and fuel industries by making waste — that would otherwise be landfilled — a resource for transportation fuels,” said Enerkem CEO Vincent Chornet. I know I won’t be the only one following this project closely.

Finally, honorable mention goes to Toronto-based WhalePower, which has just made it as a finalist at the prestigious INDEX international design competition in Copehagen, Denmark. You may recall WhalePower’s new wind-turbine blade design, which is inspired by the humpback whale’s tubercle-line flipper. This bumpy leading edge gives the whale more agility in water. WhalePower has adapted the design to turbine blades, allowing for more efficient capture of wind energy and access to this energy at lower speeds. There are five categories in the Copenhagen competition, and the winner of each category gets 100,000 Euros. Winners will be selected in August and the winning designs will also become part of a touring show through Asia and Europe. WhalePower is competing in the “community” category against some tough competition, including Shai Agassi’s Better Place.

But enough with the bragging Canuck — let’s end on a more negative note. First Ballard Power’s stock-market bubble burst, then it sold off its stake in the automobile fuel-cell portion of its business, and now it’s leaving the residential micro-CHP market. Vancouver-based Ballard announced today it was dissolving its joint-venture with Japan’s EBARA Corporation, which through EBARA Ballard Corp. manufactured, sold, and serviced residential cogeneration systems based on Ballard’s fuel-cell technology. The business case just wasn’t there, said Ballard CEO John Sheridan. With the micro-CHP market now dumped, that leaves forklifts and backup power for telecom towers. You’ve got to credit Sheridan for keeping it focused and realistic, but it’s difficult not to contrast the humbled company of today with the overhyped, overvalued Ballard of 10 to 15 years ago.

The plan is for Enerkem to accept about 189,000 tons of unsorted waste per year from the nearby Three Rivers Solid Waste Management Authority of Mississippi. The two organizations are in the process of negotiating final financial and binding agreements. Enerkem figures that about 60 per cent of the incoming waste can be gasified at its ethanol plant to produce about 20 million gallons (about 75 million litres) of cellulosic biofuel annually. That would include crop and forest residues, urban “organic” waste, construction and demolition debris, including treated wood. The non-biomass portions that can’t be converted will be sorted and sent off for recycling.

This is a perfect example of green job creation. The company expects the project will create 300 jobs during the construction and start-up phases and 150 long-term jobs (direct and indirect) after that. Vincent Chornet, president and CEO of Enerkem, pointed out that the process is unique because, unlike other energy-from-waste facilities based on gasification, this one will use a mix of municipal solid waste and wood waste as feedstock that represent a negative cost — i.e. Enerkem will get a tipping fee rather than have to pay for feedstock, like first-generation ethanol plants and even those based just on wood waste. This approach, said Chornet, will lead to “substantial commercial scale and favorable economics.”

Those who have been following this company on Clean Break will remember the deal it signed last June to build a similar ethanol-from-waste facility in Edmonton, Alberta, as part of a joint venture with ethanol producer Greenfield Ethanol. Construction will start soon on the plant, which is supposed to be in operation by the end of 2010 and will be about half the size of the Mississippi plant. It also won’t require a separate sorting and recycling facility but instead will leverage Edmonton’s existing — and I should say, world class — solid waste recycling infrastructure.

Earlier this year, Enerkem also entered the start-up phase for a small plant in Quebec that converts old power utility poles into ethanol. Again, a good example of producing a valuable fuel (or green chemicals) using a feedstock that not only doesn’t cost anything, but through a tipping fee also represents a second revenue stream.

Ethanol might have its public-relations challenges but don’t write it off yet, not when we’re getting to a point where we can take organics/biomass from landfills, turn it into a useable fuel, and avoid landfill methane emissions in the process. Enerkem’s process also turns biomass and organic solid waste into the chemical building blocks for a slew of other products, including plastics, paints and solvents. And unlike electricity-producing incinerators, the ethanol-from-waste approach using gasification is an easier sell to jurisdictions that are wary of the whole “burning” and “smokestack” images associated with mass-burn incineration facilities.

I only wish one of these Enerkem plants were being considered for southern Ontario.

Montreal-based Enerkem Inc. says it is entering the start-up phase for its first commercial-scale plant, which in this case is designed to convert old utility poles into five million litres of cellulosic ethanol every year. The plant, based in Westbury, Quebec, began construction in October 2007 and its core — the “conditioned synthesis gas island” — was completed in December. The plant is now in its advanced commissioning stage and production of conditioned syngas will soon begin. The gas will be used as a chemical feedstock initially to make methanol, which will be converted into ethanol using a separate module. “Once these gas-to-liquid modules are bolted to the syngas island, Enerkem will become the first producer of liquid fuels and green chemicals to commercially use renewable, non-food, negative-cost feedstock,” the company said. “The Enerkem thermo-chemical process uses one tonne of waste to produce 360 litres (95 gallons) of ethanol,” the company said. That’s enough fuel for a car to travel 2,500 kilometres.

Last June, you’ll recall that Enerkem, in partnership with Greenfield Ethanol, announced it is building a plant in Edmonton that will convert municipal solid waste into cellulosic ethanol. This is a company to watch.