Fanning the Flames of Waste to Energy

Momentum for waste to energy is still building. Our chronic fixation on simple fixes (burn trash) for complex problems (limited landfill space on a small island) is driving our state and county leaders to support an unproven technology that is oppositional to the County of Kaua'i's Zero Waste Resolution. In my last blog post I explored the technology and ramifications of waste to energy but I brushed over the politics. Which is the key to understanding why plasma gasification is being warped from experimental technology to touted solution for our landfill crisis.

A few days ago an anonymous comment was left on my waste-to-energy blog with a link to a Hawai'i Free Press article with this opening:

If approved, Hawaii taxpayers could find themselves providing $44M in loan guarantees to an Indian company's jet fuel deal in England. HB1515 and SB1047 would provide up to $44M in Special Purpose Revenue Bonds for Pelatron Q, LLC. According to the text of the bill, 'Pelatron Q, LLC's power plants will use a patented gasification and vitrification process which will be used to convert waste to jet fuel in London, to convert waste to energy in Hawaii.'

According to the state, "Special purpose revenue bonds (SPRBs) are a type of municipal revenue bond authorized by Hawai'i's legislature that can be issued by the State to provide loan financing to assist qualifying private capital improvement projects (for example, certain hospital or school construction) in the public interest." While funding for SPRBs comes from private investors (and not taxpayer funds), they must be for projects which are "in the public interest." How is a technology that has never been commercialized, that will derail current diversion efforts, and that has failed repeatedly at the municipal level in the public interest? It's politics.

Hawai'i Free Press (HFP) elaborates in another article that the Pelatron Center for Economic Development (PCED) is chaired by OHA Chair Robert Lindsey with Hawai'i Senator Brickwood Galuteria also on the payroll. According to HFP the "PCED is a non-profit corporation wrapped around a for profit subsidiary, Pelatron, inc." In their view, that makes Senator Galuteria an unregistered lobbyist for Pelatron. Which partially explains the state's support for waste to energy. But, what about the county?

Joan Conrow recently published a blog showing air travel expenses for the mayor and council members. The County of Kaua'i paid for Mayor Carvalho and Councilmember Kagawa to fly to London. In the words of Councilmember Kagawa (as quoted by Conrow):

I went on the trip with Mayor Carvalho to meet with representatives from British Airways and Pelatron to meet and discuss a proposal to solve our landfill problem regarding MRF and waste to energy. British Airways will be producing jet fuel from the waste in London, which currently sends their waste to Switzerland. Jet fuel is very similar to diesel, is my understanding. It is a very new technology that uses plasma arc to a higher level with practically no emissions and a much smaller end product called slag, unlike the large amount of emissions and ash that is the result of older technology like H-power.

They also have newer science that cleans the gasses to a higher level that produces more energy than current waste to energy plants produce. We have approximately 6.5 years left at Kekaha landfill. This project proposes to extend the life of Kekaha another 30 plus years…

From his quote it's not clear why they flew to London when the waste to energy facility doesn't yet exist and when Pelatron is based out of O'ahu. How does it benefit Kaua'i for our leaders to meet with British Airways when construction hasn't even begun on their proposed plant? While Councilmember Kagawa referenced biomass to liquid (BTL) in his quote above ("jet fuel is very similar to diesel"), from all of the available Pelatron Q literature, it seems clear that BTL (producing diesel fuel from waste) is not the technology that Pelatron Q is pursuing for Kaua'i.

Though special interest groups and well connected politicians are an integral part of understanding state support for waste to energy, I do not think that county support falls along the same dubious motives. While I can understand the political attraction of a quick technological fix to our landfill crisis, it's important that we differentiate between good politics and good policy. Flying to London seems way beyond due diligence for an unproven technology that is oppositional to our Zero Waste Resolution.

Mina Morita (previous chair of the PUC) also recently expressed hesitation towards the proposal. She assessed Pelatron Q's proposal based on the US Department of Energy's Technology Readiness Assessment Guide and came to this conclusion:

...where level 1 reflects basic technology research and level 9 indicates the actual system operated over the full range of expected conditions. In reviewing the Pelatron Q website and its link to to Solena Q website, there is no indication that there are any Solena Plasma Gasification and Vitrification (SPGV) technology projects in commercial operation… with the limited information available on-line, it appears SPGV may not have progressed beyond a Level 5 at most. Key decision makers must be prepared to address and assess risks of early adoption of new technologies and seek unbiased review of these technologies to better understand what side of a hype curve a technology falls. 

So, with all of that, this is is a summary of what I know:

• While Solena (Pelatron Q's partner) has signed letters of intent with at least 11 waste to energy partners (municipalities and airlines), none have gotten off the ground. While many have tried, there are currently no plasma gasification plants in the US and the technology has never been done commercially with the scale and efficiencies claimed by Pelatron Q.

• Waste to energy at the scale proposed by Pelatron Q for Kaua'i is clearly oppositional to our island's Zero Waste Resolution. 

• The Solena Q facility in London was first announced in 2010 and was supposed to be operational by 2015. Yet, construction has not yet begun. All proposed plasma gasification plants in the US have been plagued by delays until they were ultimately cancelled. If there are any currently under development, I am not aware of them.   

• The county of Kaua'i flew Councilmember Kagawa and Mayor Carvalho to London to "meet with representatives from British Airways and Pelatron." Despite the fact that Pelatron is based out of O'ahu and the British biomass to liquid (BTL) facility doesn't yet exist. 

• Pelatron Q's Kaua'i proposal opens with this line: "Pelatron Q is prepared to arrange a capital investment of $43.5M to design and construct a clean plasma gasification system on the Kekaha landfill." 

• Sequentially, the state legislature is poised to approve "special purpose revenue bonds in a total amount not to exceed $44,000,000… for the purpose of assisting Pelatron, Q, LLC.."

• The chair of OHA and a state senator are part of a non-profit closely affiliated with Pelatron. 

Regardless of the motives for waste to energy, momentum is building behind closed doors. If we act as test subjects for Pelatron Q and the technology works then our county's Zero Waste Resolution should be the first thing that they incinerate as we're committing our island to producing a level of waste that is incompatible with wide scale diversion. The more likely scenario is that Kaua'i ends up like every other municipality that has tried plasma gasification: we waste a decade and countless financial resources in pursuit of a technology that doesn't yet exist. All while our landfill continues to grow and actual solutions (like a Materials Recovery Facility used in conjunction with Pay as you Throw under the guide of the Zero Waste Resolution) get pushed aside. In pursuing waste to energy, we are heading down a dangerous path with no positive outcomes for Kaua'i.