The Post-Tribune - The vice president of an Evansville-based company that's taking steps to put an unprecedented $285 million garbage-to-ethanol plant in Lake County hopes to lay to rest officials' fears about the project.
"People have a lot of misconceptions," The plant would not incinerate and would therefore produce nontoxic air emissions, Bosar said. Instead, it would use distillation, already commonly employed for years in industry, but with one difference -- a patented step in the process using bacteria to convert syngas (a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen) into ethanol... the new plant would initially process 2,000 tons of garbage, which, at 20 tons per truck, would mean 200 trucks a day.
Powers says municipalities will be more than happy to divert their trash from landfills to its facility for a number of reasons, including the fact that the tipping fee would be around $17.50 a ton, rather than up to $40 a ton landfills charge.
Trucks will travel less because they won't have to go to Newton County, meaning fewer miles and less vehicle emissions, Bosar said.
Other positives include a reduction in landfill space, which also means a reduction in the production of methane gas, a greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming 20 times more than the carbon dioxide that Powers' plant would produce.
The ethanol is more eco-friendly in that it uses trash, something that has to be thrown away anyway, Bosar said.
"Compare that to gas you use in your car that has to be produced and refined," Bosar said.
Garbage-generated ethanol also reduces greenhouse gases by 100 percent compared to corn-generated ethanol at 50 percent, he added.
Powers has stressed that it will not build a plant in any community that does not want it.
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