Biomass and Incineration – No Fricking Fracking

Covanta intends to close multiple plants in coming years, divestitures still possible

WasteDive: Covanta intends to close multiple plants in coming years, divestitures still possible.

Covanta’s strategic review process is complete, and the company’s North American portfolio will be changing. “We have now identified a number of sites where we intend to shutter operations over the next several years, including several public sector operating contracts where we have already notified our clients that we do not intend to extend contracts when they expire,” said CEO Michael Ranger during a Friday earnings call.
The company also identified the potential for $30 million in annual cost reductions by 2023, with some starting this year due to voluntary early retirements. This does not include any potential asset divestitures, which remain under consideration.
Looking ahead, the company projected it could achieve $600 million of adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) and $250 million of free cash flow by 2024. Driving the projections, in part, is the company’s ongoing expansion overseas, with its new Rookery South energy recovery facility set to begin receiving waste in the U.K. soon.

The Daily Climate, March 26, 2021

Articles include: Canada’s Supreme Court ruling on carbon tax; US carbon tax on O&G; promises of net zero carbon emissions; solar entrepreneurs; biomass; Congressional Review Act to reinstate methane rules; pro-fracking columnist is a denier; Massachusetts climate law; wind capacity not being built quickly enough; abandoning buses and trains; East Kentucky flooding; Volkswagen & Tesla.

C&EN discusses Companies are placing big bets on plastics recycling. Are the odds in their favor? Chemical recycling is attracting billions in capital spending, but environmentalists don’t think it will solve the plastic waste problem.

IN BRIEF

Chemical companies and major consumer brands are betting that chemical recycling—mainly pyrolysis and depolymerization—will help them achieve ambitious recycling targets. They will invest billions in new projects over the coming decade. Environmentalists, however, are skeptical. They think chemical recycling is a smoke screen for keeping business as usual, for not much of an environmental improvement. And they doubt the projects will get off the ground. Using less plastic, they say, is the best option. But industry maintains it is on the threshold of proving the technology.

The Wood Pellet Business is Booming. Scientists Say That’s Not Good for the Climate.

Inside Climate News discusses the Wood Pellet Business. Scientists Say That’s Not Good for the Climate. Trump’s EPA is expected to propose a new rule declaring burning biomass to be carbon neutral, as industry looks to expand its domestic markets.

In rural Southern towns from Virginia to Texas, mill workers are churning out wood pellets from nearby forests as fast as European power plants, thousands of miles away, can burn them.

On this side of the Atlantic, new pellet plants are being proposed in South Carolina, Arkansas and other southern states. And Southern coastal shipping ports are expanding along with the pellet industry, vying to increase deliveries to Asia.

While the United States has fallen into a coronavirus-induced recession that dealt a blow to oil, gas, and petrochemical companies, for biomass production across the South, it’s still boom time.

Not all biomass is carbon neutral, industry admits as EU reviews policy

Climate Change News discusses that not all biomass is carbon neutral, industry admits as EU reviews policy. The EU is working on stricter sustainability criteria for bioenergy, posing a challenge for the industry and several member states.

Leading industry figures acknowledge that not all biomass brings benefits to the climate, insisting that only low-value wood and forest residues should make the cut under EU law.

“Not all biomass is good biomass,” says Jennifer Jenkins, chief sustainability officer at Enviva, a US-based company which is the world’s largest producer of industrial wood pellets used for electricity and heat production.

Report: Is renewable natural gas a serious alternative to ‘electrify everything’?

Grist discusses whether renewable natural gas is a serious alternative to ‘electrify everything’.

While wind and solar power and electric vehicles tend to dominate the conversation around preventing catastrophic climate change, electricity and transportation aren’t the whole picture. The world also needs to act quickly to reduce emissions from other sources, like the fuels burned in buildings for heating, hot water, and cooking. In colder climates where people rely on fossil fuel heating to survive frigid winters, the carbon footprint of those systems is especially large.

There are two ways to decarbonize buildings. One is to replace all the appliances that run on natural gas or other fossil fuels with electric appliances — no small task in many existing buildings. The other is to replace the fossil fuels delivered to buildings to power those appliances with “renewable” fuels.

There’s ongoing disagreement about which of these options should prevail, or whether there’s room for both. Gas utilities, eager to remain in business, assert that renewable natural gas (RNG) has a future in buildings. A new report out on Wednesday by Earthjustice and the Sierra Club criticizes the industry’s aggressive marketing of RNG for buildings, arguing that it’s too expensive, there’s not enough of it, and it does not solve the health and safety risks of pipelines carrying methane or burning gas indoors.

Connecticut DEEP rejects proposed overhaul of major WTE facility on cusp of closure

Waste Dive discusses how the Connecticut DEEP rejects proposed overhaul of major WTE facility on cusp of closure.

Connecticut’s Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) recently rejected plans from the Materials Innovation and Recycling Authority (MIRA) to refurbish an aging refuse-derived fuel (RDF) facility for a capital cost of at least $330 million. Commissioner Katie Dykes called it “a false choice, and a bad deal” in a July 14 letter.
MIRA’s board previously identified exporting to out-of-state landfills as the only near-term alternative, but DEEP is calling for new ideas beyond solely converting the site to a transfer station. The letter asked for more attention to efforts in line with the state’s materials management strategy, such as organics diversion, recycling education and unit-based pricing to drive waste reduction.

6 Places Where the National Environmental Policy Act Made The Difference

EarthJustice discusses 6 Places Where the National Environmental Policy Act Made The Difference. One of the first lawsuits under the National Environmental Policy Act was brought — and won — by Earthjustice on behalf of the Sierra Club in 1971. It demanded an environmental study before the government allowed the Gila River, a tributary of the Colorado River in New Mexico, to be turned into a concrete ditch. The project failed to gain approval. The 649-mile Gila River lives to flow on today.

New plastic pyrolysis capacity planned in the US

C&EN discusses new plastic pyrolysis capacity planned in the US. Plants by Braven Environmental and Encina will take in a combined 225,000 metric tons of waste plastic per year.

Two new plastic pyrolysis plants are in the works in the US that could add a new recycling option for plastic trash and increase the supply of some commodity chemicals.

In pyrolysis, a feedstock such as waste plastic is heated in a low-oxygen environment and, instead of burning, breaks down into a mix of simpler hydrocarbons. Tweaking the reaction conditions—such as temperature, pressure, or use of a catalyst—allows operators to get various product mixtures.

El Dorado plant destroying virus waste

nwaonline discusses how an El Dorado plant destroying virus waste.

A hazardous-waste facility in El Dorado is incinerating hundreds of containers full of infectious waste per week produced during the coronavirus testing and decontamination efforts taking place in the mid-Atlantic region and neighboring Southern states.

The facility, owned by the national environmental services company Clean Harbors, recently requested a temporary waiver from the Arkansas Division of Environmental Quality to expedite the incineration process for covid-19 waste during the outbreak. The agency granted the request April 14.

The temporary authorization is one of a number of requests submitted to the agency and the Arkansas Department of Energy and Environment in recent weeks seeking regulatory relief during the crisis.

Like federal environmental regulators, earlier this month the state agency issued provisional guidance relaxing testing, permitting and enforcement for regulated entities such as landfills, utility companies and manufacturing plants on a case-by-case basis if the operators of these facilities believe they cannot comply with regulations because of the outbreak.