That bag of trash may, in a few years, power the truck that comes to pick it up.
An Eden Prairie start-up, Rational Energies, is rolling out plans for a biomass gasification facility in Dakota County that could start turning garbage into diesel in 2012.
The plant, on 53 acres of land in Empire Township south of Rosemount, would produce 28 million gallons of diesel a year from 700,000 tons of metro-area trash. Rational Energies says the project is the first of its kind.
An open house and public hearing about the project will be held today at Empire Town Hall. The plan would require a zoning change for the land, which is at the intersection of Hwy. 52 and County Road 46.
"We think everybody is running around talking about next-generation advanced alternative fuels," said Ed Driscoll, chief executive officer of Rational Energies. "We actually have one."
He said Rational Energies would collect trash from waste management companies, much like a landfill does now, and once it's turned back into diesel, sell it to companies with large diesel-powered fleets, such as garbage haulers.
Before the trash could become fuel, it would first be screened to remove unusable materials, such as metals, which would be recycled. After repeated shredding, it would be placed on a bed of sand-like material inside a sealed chamber. Gas-fired tubes running through the sand-like material would heat the trash, reducing it to either ash or synthesis gas.
The nonhazardous ash, equivalent to about 10 percent of the original volume of solid waste, will be taken to a landfill.
Then most of the synthesis gas, which will include carbon monoxide, hydrogen and carbon dioxide, will be treated and turned back into a liquid in the form of diesel.
The gas that is not turned into diesel will be used to heat later batches of garbage.
"It makes a lot of sense if it all works," said Greg Feely, chairman of the Empire Township Planning Commission.
Driscoll said it will cost about $300 million to build the facility, and Rational Energies plans to apply for a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy and secure the rest of the funds through private equity investors. The facility would create about 40 jobs before construction, 250 during construction and about 90 after opening, he said.
Katie Humphrey • 952-882-9056
