Clean Energy Combustion Systems Inc. and its joint venture partner EnEco Industries Ltd.
have signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Sistema Metropolitano de Procesamiento de
Desechos Soildos ("SIMEPRODESO"), granting the joint venture a concession to
construct and operate a 30 megawatt solid municipal waste-to-energy facility
for the city of Monterrey, Mexico, using EnEco's Controlled Oxidation Reaction
Environment "CORE" gasification technology.
Clean Energy estimates that it will cost approximately $70 million to construct the facility and to commence
operations. Construction is proposed for 2005 and operations are scheduled to
begin in 2006. Clean Energy and EnEco intend to secure an experienced
third-party solid municipal waste operator to fund the project and to operate
the initial plant as well as the anticipated follow-up plants for SIMEPRODESO, and
are currently under discussions with an established operator relative to this
aspect of the project, according to a news release.
The CORE technology is described as an environmentally-friendly gasification system
that converts organic or carbon-based materials contained in solid municipal
waste to 5-percent ash content. Because the gasification process uses relatively low
heat levels, the glass, metals, aluminum, wires and other ferrous and
nonferrous metals and aggregates contained in the solid waste will not be
gasified; instead, they will be easily recovered in their original form after
the gasification process and sold to recycling markets. All material remaining
after the gasification process is further processed to ensure all inert
material is contaminant free. The resulting ash from the gasification of the
organic materials is relatively benign since it is not contaminated with heavy
metals. After this final processing step, the ash together with the glass and sand
recovered in the gasification process may be used for asphalt and concrete
building materials as well as land fill cover. The energy rich gases produced
by the gasification process will be used to create electrical energy through a
steam turbine circuit. Final plant discharges are lower and, in some cases
significantly lower, than that presently allowed under United States and
Canadian pollution standards.
SIMEPRODESO is a private company owned by the state of Nuevo Leon, Mexico,
that provides all of the state's municipal solid waste management services.
SIMEPREDESO currently processes approximately 5,000 tons per day of unsorted
solid municipal waste for the Monterrey municipal area. Under the Memorandum
of Understanding, for the next 20 years SIMEPRODESO will deliver 765 tons per
day of unsorted solid municipal waste containing at least 10 percent wood waste, and
135 tons per day of car and truck tires, to the plant to be gasified and to
create heat energy that can be converted into electrical energy, and will be
obligated to purchase the electrical power generated at a fixed rate of
US $0.06 per kW. Based upon the 30 MW output of the plant, this will result in
approximately US $16 million in revenues per year. Under the Memorandum of
Understanding, the joint venture will construct additional capacity on site,
and additional 600 ton per day gasification facilities at outlying transit
locations in Monterrey once the initial plant is operating.
All profits from the operation, licensing or sale of the Monterrey plant will be split 50/50 between Clean Energy and
EnEco. As part of the joint venture, Clean Energy will allow EnEco to use
Clean Energy's unique high-efficiency valveless oscillating burner technology
as a component part of the secondary oxidation process in the CORE
gasification system under which the gases produced by the primary gasification
process are burned and the resultant heat energy is made available to create
steam energy for electricity production.
