Trash-to-fuel Project Comes to Lake County, Ind.

Fulcrum BioEnergy announced it is coming to Lake County, Ind., and investing more than $600 million to turn household waste into low-carbon jet fuel.

The plant is expected to be constructed by 2022 and aims to turn nearly 700,000 tons of landfill waste into renewable jet fuel every year. Construction for the plant is expected to begin in 2020, and once operational, the plant would process a “dry, clean feedstock” of paper, plastic and other waste products, according to NWI Times. After gasification, materials would be turned into a jet fuel that would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by an estimated 80 percent.

NWI Times has more details:

Lake County’s recent history is littered with troubled or outright scrapped trash-to-energy projects from firms like Maya Energy and Powers Energy of America and failed experimental green technology projects like Gary Works’ squandered $210 million bet on Carbonex’s alternative to coke.

But a new company from California has come forward with promises to turn household waste into low-carbon jet fuel in the city of Gary in a more-than-half-a-billion-dollar project.

Fulcrum BioEnergy, Inc. vows to invest $600 million and hire 160 workers at an average wage of $29 an hour, not including benefits, to run its Centerpoint BioFuels Plant. About 900 construction workers would be needed to construct the plant by 2022, which would turn about 700,000 tons of municipal landfill waste from across Chicagoland into 33 million gallons of renewable jet fuel each year.

Read the full article here.