Energy Recovery Case Study: City of Edmonton

The City of Edmonton has a population of around 800,000. It currently converts over 60 per cent
of its municipal solid waste into saleable products. Approximately 45,000 tonnes of materials are
recycled, 70,000 tonnes are sold as compost and 95,000 tonnes are landfilled. The lack of
available landfill space, and failure to locate a new landfill site, has led to increased need for
additional diversion processes. A proposed new pre-processing facility and biofuels plant to be
commissioned in 2011 will increase diversion to 90 per cent and will include virtually all nonrecycled residual plastics.

Economic Impacts

Energy efficiencies: At capacity, the new biofuels plant will gasify 100,000 tonnes of solid
waste to produce 36 million litres of ethanol a year. This amount contains the energy
equivalent of around 23 million litres of gasoline enough to power about 18,000 average
cars (8.5 litres/100 km) for 15,000 km/year.
Employment impact: The current Edmonton Waste Management Centre is a production
plant employing about 300 people. The new biofuels facility will create 25 additional highly
skilled positions.
Impact on public budget: The new facility will be a private/public partnership. Although the
details of the agreement between the city and its partners remain confidential, city officials say
that the cost to the city is approximately the same as the cost of landfill disposal at Ryley. The
Alberta provincial government is also on board. Through one of its agencies, it contributed
$29 million to the biofuels project $20 million to help defray the capital costs of the plant and
$9 million to build an advanced energy research facility at the Edmonton Waste Management
Centre. This research facility will include a complete 300 kg/hr pilot gasification system that
will allow the testing of other feedstocks.
Impact of new facility: The potential sale of residual heat and syngas from the new biofuels
facility (as well as the sale of concentrated carbon dioxide, fly ash, char, and carbon credits)
are being actively pursued. A project to use the residual heat and syngas by the County of
Stathcona was announced in October 2009. The project attracted approximately $7.5 million
in provincial funding. It will reduce carbon dioxide emissions by about 7,000 tonnes a year.

Environmental Impacts

Recycling Levels: In both the U.S. and European Union, studies have demonstrated a
positive correlation between energy recovery in the region and higher than national recycling
rates. The new biofuels facility will increase the City of Edmontons current recycling rate by
one third.
Materials sorting and recovery: The current Municipal Waste Treatment Facilities process
over 250,000 tonnes of waste per year. The new biofuels facility will take up to 100,000
tonnes of residuals from the recycling and composting processes. When completed, the
Municipal Waste Treatment Facilities will divert over 90 per cent of the municipal solid waste
from landfill.

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Landfill diversion: The facility will result in a net reduction in landfill additions of
approximately 71,000 tonnes the equivalent of filling a Canadian Football League stadium to
a depth of 25 metres or about 90 feet every year. Input feed material will be comprised of
about 23,000 tonnes of plastics from the municipal solid waste stream and another 10,000
tonnes of plastic that will be selected from the industrial, commercial and institutional, as well
as construction and demolitions streams.
Captured energy: The new biofuels facility will produce enough ethanol to power 18,000 cars
15,000 kilometres a year.
Greenhouse gas reductions: The new biofuels facility will reduce the Citys carbon footprint
by 6,000,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent over the 25 year life of the plant.
Air emissions: Project implementation required an environmental permit from the Province of
Alberta. Analyses of exit gases from the pilot plant during runs using the feedstock materials
from the City of Edmonton demonstrated that, in normal operation, all of the common metals,
including those popularly called heavy metals, were below the limits of detection. Similarly,
chlorine, fluorine, sulphur, dioxins and particulates were below detection limits. Small amounts
of oxides of nitrogen and carbon monoxide are dispersed by a stack and were shown to be
well within the Alberta Ambient Air Quality Objectives. The result is a very environmentally
clean process that operates well within legislated guidelines.

Political/Institutional Impacts

Community support: Part of the approval process for the new facility required public input.
There have been no negative reports regarding the biofuels project in the local press. Plus, all
11 comments received from the 32 attendees of the public information sessions were positive.
This contrasts significantly with the massive pubic outcry in the 1990s when the City of
Edmonton put forth a proposal to build a new landfill within the City limits and subsequently
abandoned the idea.
Industry and public relationship: The integrated facility in the City of Edmonton is a model
of leadership for other municipalities. Creative public/private partnerships reduced the initial
outlay by the City and the rewards are a sustainable, environmentally responsible process for
managing solid waste while maintaining control of the costs and operation within the
community.