Lara Abrams Communications

Southern Research Institute’s C2L Development Center Commissions System That Converts Landfill Waste into Power or Clean Transportation Fuels

How about that? Officials at Southern Research Institute’s Carbon-to-Liquids (C2L) Development Center have announced the commission of the its first advanced energy conversion technology system. Beginning in May, the system will convert municipal solid waste from landfills into clean synthesis gas (syngas).

It’s the first pilot commercial project to be commissioned at the center since it opened in May of last year. The pilot system will process ca. five tons of municipal solid waste per day. After commissioning, performance testing will be conducted and scale-up potential will be assessed. The system could potentially scale up for commercial landfill operations processing 100 to 1000 tons per day.

Syngas is a basic energy building block produced from a class of technologies known as thermochemical processes. Once produced, syngas can be converted into clean transportation fuels like ethanol, Fischer Tropsch (FT) diesel, or FT jet fuel, or into chemical feedstocks and electrical power. Thermochemical processes can convert carbon containing materials like trash, animal or agricultural waste, industrial or commercial waste, energy crops, and forest waste into valuable end-products. They are poised to play an important role in the bio-energy and clean power industries. The pilot plant at the C2L Center will use a unique thermochemical process designed for converting municipal solid waste which is now being mostly land filled. Once the pilot system is proven and optimized, work will begin on integrating processes for converting the syngas into end products.

ABOUT THE CARBON TO LIQUIDS (C2L) DEVELOPMENT CENTER
The Carbon-to-Liquids Development Center provides independent technical support to clients who are developing and integrating advanced energy systems and transportation fuel production technologies. The facility, a unit of the Southern Research Engineering Division, was established in April 2007 to facilitate the commercial acceptance of environmentally superior technologies that convert domestic non-petroleum and non-food crop carbon resources into high value products like clean diesel, jet fuel, methanol, ethanol and electric power. The C2L Center is currently developing a number of pilot-scale energy plants which are used to optimize system performance, integrated advanced energy technologies in new ways, demonstrate technology concepts, and develop the data needed to scale-up to full-sized commercial operations. The C2L Center is located on 28 acres in the northern Research Triangle region of North Carolina. It maintains 32,000 sq. feet of high bay process and laboratory space, and 10,000 sq. feet of office space and meeting facilities which can be used to showcase client technologies. For more information, see www.carbontoliquids.com < http://www.southernresearch.org/environmental/carbon-to-liquids.html> .

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