Montreal-based Enerkem Inc. held a groundbreaking ceremony in Edmonton, Alberta for the site of a new 36 MMly (10 MMgy) municipal solid waste-to-ethanol facility. The project is a public-private collaboration between Enerkem, the City of Edmonton, and the Government of Alberta through Alberta Innovates- Energy and Environment Solutions (formerly the Alberta Energy Research Institute). Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach, Edmonton Mayor Stephen Mandel and Enerkem Chief Executive Officer Vincent Chornet spoke at the groundbreaking event. 

 The facility, expected to be fully operational by 2011, will be built, owned and operated by Enerkem&#8217;s wholly-owned subsidiary Enerkem Alberta Biofuels LP. The plant would be the world&#8217;s first industrial-scale ethanol plant to exclusively utilize MSW as feedstock. 
 According to Chornet, the company uses a proprietary bubbling fluidized bed gasifier process technology with a gas conditioning process attached at the back end. In addition to the production of ethanol, Chornet added, the process also has the capability of sequestering methanol and acetates. 
 &#8220;We clean the synthesis gas then apply catalyst which shifts the gas to methanol and from there we produce ethanol,&#8221; Chornet said. Enerkem&#8217;s thermo-chemical gasification and catalytic synthesis technology has been tested at its pilot-scale facility in Sherbrooke, Quebec since 2003. &#8220;We target a very specific synthesis gas with a quite specific hydrogen-to-carbon monoxide ratio,&#8221; Chornet added. 
 The City of Edmonton, which awarded Enerkem $23 million in funding along with the Government of Alberta for the Edmonton project, signed a 25-year agreement to convert 100,000 metric tons of the city&#8217;s MSW into ethanol and biochemicals. 

 Start of construction for the MSW-to-ethanol plant is one of two segments that will complete the Edmonton project site. According to Chornet, Enerkem&#8217;s research and development center is currently under construction, while a waste processing plant has already been built on the site. 
 In addition to its Edmonton project and Sherbroke pilot-plant, Enerkem has two other projects in its sights. Enerkem applied $50 million worth of funding from the U.S. DOE to a similar project in Mississippi. The company also operates a 1.3 MMgy syngas-to-ethanol/methanol plant in Westbury, Quebec, which is collocated with a saw mill and utilizes waste materials such as treated wood from used electricity poles. 
 &#8220;There are other municipalities and private waste managers around the world that are approaching us to develop similar projects [to the one in Edmonton] but we&#8217;re staying focused on the initial projects we have to build,&#8221; Chornet said. &nbsp; &nbsp;

Montreal-based Enerkem Inc. held a groundbreaking ceremony in Edmonton, Alberta for the site of a new 36 MMly (10 MMgy) municipal solid waste-to-ethanol facility.

Enerkem breaks ground on MSW-to-biofuels plant

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Enerkem breaks ground on MSW-to-biofuels plant