A class of highly toxic pollutants may be produced by one of the garbage-to-ethanol plants being proposed in Lake County, though the company says it can virtually eliminate their escape into the environment. Genahol-Powers 1 LLC is one of two garbage-to-ethanol companies pursuing a 20-year waste disposal contract with the Lake County Municipal Solid Waste District.
The company plans to convert the county's garbage into ethanol through a "gasification" process in which the solid waste is turned into a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen gas by cooking the garbage at high temperatures in a low-oxygen atmosphere. That gas, called synthesis gas, is then converted into ethanol by bacteria in a fermentation tank.
A byproduct created from the burning of municipal garbage is the class of chemicals called chlorinated dioxins. Dioxins are toxic, cancer-causing pollutants regulated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
The process Genahol-Powers 1 plans to use won't be burning the garbage in the traditional sense. Creating the synthesis gas requires a low-oxygen atmosphere, which minimizes the formation of dioxins, though doesn't prevent them entirely, according to Jim Gaddy, professor emeritus of chemical engineering at the University of Arkansas and president of Bioengineering Resources Inc., the company that developed the gasification process Genahol-Powers 1 is proposing to use.
More dioxins can form from the ash created from the burning garbage when it cools. But Ken Boser, technical director for Genahol-Powers 1, says that by using a liquid solution that coats the ash, cools it and keeps oxygen from reaching it, that any dioxins produced will be minimal and will be trapped in the ash. That ash, Boser said, can safely be disposed of in a landfill.
At a public meeting before the Lake County Solid Waste Management District, Boser repeatedly said no dioxins would be produced in the gasification process.
He later clarified his statement, saying virtually no dioxins would be created and that none would be released into the air or wastewater.
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