Muscatine turning food waste into fuel
They’re hoping to fuel city vehicles with the product
The city of Muscatine is working on fueling for the future.
Recently the city of Muscatine gave their water pollution plant an $18 million upgrade.
They added two digesters and a methane gas burner.
Instead of just burning the gas, the city’s Director of the Water Pollution Control Plant decided to do something with it.
That led to the Muscatine Area Resource Recovery for Vehicles and Energy Project
“I started seeing the flame burn all the methane gas and thought why don’t we use this gas for something better than just burning,” says Jon Kock.
The Director of Muscatine’s Water Pollution Control Plant, Jon Kock, says back in 2010 he began to think of ways the city could recycle the gas.
Since Muscatine already has it’s own power plant, the other option was to make vehicle fuel.
“We have a large trucking company here in town that actually puts CNG, which is compressed natural gas into their trucks, in a big area that they have out in Indiana. So we started pursing that a little bit more, and how the gas could be used for garbage trucks, for police cars, for all the other kind of facilities that we have,” says Kock.
Kock began working on the Muscatine Area Resource Recovery for Vehicles and Energy… The M.A.R.R.V.E project.
The first phase of this project is to build a receiving facility where Muscatine locals, and companies from around the Quad Cities can bring their organic wastes to be converted into natural gas instead.
“We actually have a contract right now with a large facility out in Clinton, who’s bringing us waste already. So even before we have it built, we’ve had interest from industries and everything all over the region that say they want to bring their waste to us,” says Kock.
Kock says this will help reduce landfills by 20 percent.
The second phase of the project is to build a new facility that will convert the food-waste fuel into the compressed vehicle fuel.
Then, they can convert city vehicles to be CNG compatible.
Kock says this will not only make Muscatine more sustainable, but keep the environment healthy.
“If you have this fuel be made locally, right here in town, you don’t have to bring anything else in. Nobody has to produce it, pump it out of the ground and bring it here. It’s just a good way to have a nice close loop in our community,” says Kock.
The first phase of the project is expected to be complete by the end of this year.
The cost is about two point five to $3 million.
Kock says it will be paid back with the tipping fees they will receive.
https://www.ourquadcities.com/news/muscatine-turning-food-waste-into-fuel/702593367