March 28, 2006

Tires-to-Ethanol Facility Planned for New Jersey

Startech Environmental Corporation and Fuel Frontiers, Inc. (FFI - formerly known as Future Fuels, Inc.), a subsidiary of Nuclear Solutions Inc., have announced a Strategic Alliance Agreement and progress toward establishment of a waste-to-ethanol facility in Toms River, New Jersey by late 2007. Initially, the facility is expected to process 100 tons of tires per day with additional modules added later. The Startech Plasma Converter system will convert the feedstock into Plasma Converted Gas (PCG)™, a syngas, which FFI will, in turn, convert into ethanol using a catalytic process.

The press release, without background information on the principals, is provided below.

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Startech Environmental and Future Fuels Form a Strategic Alliance for the Production of Ethanol Fuel from Tires
First-of-its-kind Project to be the $84 Million Future Fuel Tires-to-Ethanol Facility in Toms River, New Jersey

WILTON, Conn., March 15 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Startech Environmental Corporation (OTC Bulletin Board: STHK), a fully reporting company, announced today that Startech and Future Fuels, Inc., (FFI) a subsidiary of Nuclear Solutions, Inc., (OTC Bulletin Board: NSOL) of Washington, D.C., have formed a Strategic Alliance Agreement to mutually obtain contracts for waste-to-ethanol facilities and also for FFI's own $84 million Waste-to-Ethanol Facility to be constructed in Toms River, New Jersey.

The Company has also received the Letter Of Intent from FFI for FFI's purchase of a 100 ton-per-day Startech Plasma Converter System (PCS) for installation in the first-of-its-kind Waste-to-Ethanol Facility in Toms River, scheduled to go on-line in late 2007. The PCS will safely and completely destroy the tires in its process that results in a clean synthesis gas product called Plasma Converted Gas (PCG)™. The Plasma Converter will be attached to the front of the FFI system. PCG produced will be piped directly into the FFI system to make commercial fuel-grade ethanol for sale. Plans also call for the Toms River Facility expansion to include a series of additional Startech 100 ton-per-day modular Plasma Converter Systems.

President of FFI, Jack Young, said, "We welcome partnering with Startech to fuse their expertise and commercial experience in plasma processing technology with FFI's unique business model to convert abundant waste feedstocks into ethanol. Where Startech provides front-end technology to transform a variety of waste products into syngas, FFI provides the back-end catalytic process to convert that syngas into useful products such as ethanol, higher alcohol fuels and synthetic fuels, like diesel, gasoline and kerosene (jet fuel). The Strategic Alliance between FFI and Startech will open more doors into the U.S. ethanol market for both companies as well as to customers in Europe, Asia and South America where Startech currently has initiatives underway," states FFI President Jack Young.

Joseph F. Longo, Startech president said, "The Startech-FFI teaming is a perfect fit that will help increase Startech's market penetration and sales at home and overseas. As a result of the FFI press release on March 13, 2006 announcing the Alliance, we have already received lively interest from our Sales Representatives, Distributors and potential customers in the U.S., Central America, Australia, Asia and the European Union.

"We are especially pleased to know that we will be a significant part of the new $84 million FFI Toms River Ethanol Facility.

"Ethanol is an important renewable fuel, derived from ubiquitous feedstock materials previously regarded as wastes. When added to gasoline, it will help America move further towards energy independence and actually reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

"Startech processing customers are paid for receiving waste feed stocks at the front-end of the System and paid for producing and selling the resulting commercial products at the back-end. To the many commodity products that can be made from PCG, we have now added FFI fuel-grade ethanol fuel. Fuel-grade ethanol is about 199 Proof. Two hundred proof is 100% ethanol. Industrial ethanol, for paint thinners, solvents and so forth, is typically about 160 Proof.

"An important fact sometimes overlooked is that waste is an inexhaustible, renewable, ever-recurring resource."

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Additional technical information is published at The Energy Blog by James Fraser - thanks James!



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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

The PCS will safely and completely destroy the tires in its process that results in a clean synthesis gas product called Plasma Converted Gas (PCG)™. The Plasma Converter will be attached to the front of the FFI system. PCG produced will be piped directly into the FFI system to make commercial fuel-grade ethanol for sale.

Scott,

Doesn't this seem like a lot of trouble?

The primary feedstock used to make the artificial rubber in tires is petroleum. (Whenever one of those big piles of old tires catch fire, one of the things that runs away from the fire in rivers is oil.)

Wouldn't it be easier to recapture the oil the tires were originally made from, and use that to make fuel, rather than sending the old tires through a plasma converter that will make a clean synthesis gas that can then eventually be made into ethanol?

Nigel Gamecock

C. Scott Miller said...

Recycling tires is no simple task and, given the number that get tossed every year, an important waste disposal problem. I am no expert on tire demolition, but I have never heard of a process for returning tires to their component petroleum.

I see gasifying waste as a near universal solution for cleanly reducing volume and providing a marketable syngas that can be used for a variety of purposes. Because of the high fossil fuel content of tires, it would provide a syngas high in carbon monoxide which could be converted to higher than average gallons of ethanol per ton.

I think Future Fuels should consider blending the shredded tires with other low energy waste feedstock before gasification. I don't know what their catalyst is but BRI Energy's bacteria is able to handle the syngas of blended feedstock.

Anonymous said...

has the plant in Toms River been completed? Are there are production data available? Neil Seldman