Garbage incinerator to produce natural gas
More than two decades after ending its short life turning municipal trash into electricity, the dormant waste-to-energy plant in Robbins could get a rebirth.
Sustainable BioWorks envisions taking expired and recalled food and converting it into sellable products such as renewable natural gas and fertilizer.
The property, 13400 Kedzie Ave., operated for about three years as an incinerator converting garbage into power, shutting in September 2000. Since then, other plans have surfaced to reuse the property, none of them realized.
Robert Fletcher, senior manager and majority owner of Sustainable BioWorks, thinks the proposed use represents the “next wave of sustainable, clean and renewable energy.”
The company proposes to acquire expired and recalled food from food manufacturers and has been working on supply agreements to keep a steady flow to the plant.
It has also been working to secure agreements with buyers of the end products that would be produced, such as natural gas and fertilizer.
According to documents filed in the summer of 2020 with the Illinois Finance Authority, Sustainable BioWorks estimates it will cost a bit more than $300 million to complete the plant.
Renovating portions of the existing power plant and new construction are expected to cost a little more than $129 million, while new machinery is expected to run $110 million, according to estimates.
Sustainable BioWorks could come back to the Illinois Finance Authority for assistance in a bond issue, such as tax-free bonds, to help finance the project. The company said it is also working with a number of private and public entities as well as individual investors for project financing.
Fletcher said that demand globally for biogas, such as what the Robbins facility would produce, is enormous, and the plant would help divert food waste from landfills.
“We are looking to provide the safest, best eco-friendly solution to the demand for innovative alternative fuel and products that are healthy for the environment and the communities we serve,” Fletcher said.
His background includes owning an area construction company and, through other companies, Fletcher acquired much of the shuttered incinerator in 2014.
The project is expected to create about 250 temporary construction jobs and 135 permanent positions in areas including engineering, operation and management, according to the company.
The company estimates that once the plant is operating, it will generate about $700,000 in property taxes for Robbins.
The company expects to start construction early next year and be operating by the middle of 2023.
Robbins Mayor Darren Bryant said that village officials have just started to see specifics of the plan and that there is no definitive timeline as to how the project might advance.
Sustainable BioWorks held a community meeting Nov. 12 to introduce the project that the mayor said was attended by perhaps 15 residents.
“I’m excited about the potential development,” said Bryant, who was elected mayor this spring. “The idea sounds very pleasant, very eco-friendly.”
When the 55-megawatt, $500 million trash-burning power plant opened in 1997, it was expected to be a source of high-paying jobs and a tremendous boost for a tax base desperately needed by the village.
The development of the plant came at a time when the state was actively promoting the development of new power plants that didn’t rely on fossil fuels. There were also concerns that Illinois was running out of landfill space, which led the General Assembly to act.
Operating subsidies approved by legislators in 1987 prompted projects such as the Robbins incinerator and promised to make them financially viable. Construction of the Robbins plant began in 1994, but the subsidies were withdrawn by legislators in early 1996, about a year before the mid-1997 opening of the incinerator. Its developer and owner, Foster Wheeler, sued the state after the subsidies were canceled, and it wasn’t long before the hulking plant became a white elephant.
After piling up at least $40 million in operating losses due to the repeal, Foster Wheeler shuttered the incinerator in September 2000.
While it was operating, Robbins was seeing annual revenue of $500,000, money that went to buying new police cars, fire equipment and a remodeling of Village Hall.
The state incinerator subsidies brought about an incinerator in another impoverished south suburb, Ford Heights, that burned tires to generate power. It halted operations in the summer of 2011 after numerous violations of air pollution regulations, and was shuttered for good after a consent decree in February 2013 with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
After the Robbins incinerator closed, various efforts were put forth to try to bring it back. One called for annually burning 350,000 tons of wood, such as shredded trees, to produce energy.
Yet another incarnation called for using high-voltage electricity rather than flame to incinerate garbage and convert the resulting heat to power boilers that would generate power. The revamp was estimated to cost more than $400 million and handle 4,000 tons of garbage a day compared with the 1,200 tons per day the original incinerator was burning.
Sustainable BioWorks says its proposal would be to continuously feed food waste into digester tanks, with microbes breaking down the material to produce biogas.
Much of the food waste would be liquid, with about 20% being solid material, and equipment would be installed to remove any food packaging, which would be recycled.
The resulting gas from the digestion process contains carbon dioxide and methane, the primary component of natural gas, according to the company. The methane would be converted to renewable natural gas and the carbon dioxide liquefied for use in food production, according to the company.
What remains from the “digestate” after the gases are extracted contains nitrogen and phosphate that the company plans to convert into commercial-grade fertilizer.