The San Jose, Calif., City Council has authorized the City Manager to negotiate and execute a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to develop guidelines and potential lease terms for the development of an organics-to-energy biogas facility on a 40-acre site.
The biogas facility as planned will be constructed and operated by Zanker Road Biogas, which will be a sister company of Zanker Road Landfill, an established construction and demolition recycling company that is part of GreenWaste Recovery Inc.
GreenWaste Recovery is a privately owned solid waste and recycling company that operates a curbside recycling material recovery facility (MRF) in San Jose that claims an 85 percent diversion rate. GreenWaste works with its sister company Zanker Road Resource Management Ltd. to operate the municipal MRF, the Zanker Road Landfill and C&D recycling center, and Z-Best Composting in Gilroy, Calif., yard trimmings and food waste are converted into soil amendments.
San Jose’s MOU would set forth the guidelines and a plan for the potential lease terms of a biogas project. If the negotiations for the MOU are successful, the City of San Jose would issue the lease to Zero Waste Energy Development Company Inc., a partnership between GreenWaste Recovery and its sister company Zanker Road Resource Management.
For the project, GreenWaste would partner with Harvest Power Inc., a company funded in part by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers that provides technology and project development capabilities to harness the renewable energy in organic waste.
The proposed facility could take in up to 150,000 tons of organic waste per year to process and produce energy—from waste that would have been destined for a landfill. The resulting energy could supply power to the adjacent San Jose/Santa Clara Water Pollution Control Plant (Plant) or be sold back into the regional electrical utility power grid.
“This project not only demonstrates San Jose's leadership in the production of renewable energy but will help us meet the economic development, zero waste and energy goals of our city’s Green Vision,” says San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed.
The technology at Zanker Road Biogas would use a process known as dry anaerobic fermentation to generate renewable biogas and high-quality compost.
“Zanker Road Biogas is a perfect example of San Jose’s ability to establish strategic partnerships with private sector companies that can drive our community to achieve our ambitious Green Vision goals,” says John Stufflebean, director of the Environmental Services Department of the City of San Jose.
The proposed project site would be adjacent to two existing facilities owned by Zanker Road Resource Management. GreenWaste and Zanker’s existing and currently proposed recyclables processing facilities push San Jose closer to establishing what they are calling a fully integrated waste management system “ecopark.”
Existing facilities, including the GreenWaste MRF and Zanker Road Resource Management’s landfill, mixed C&D plant and composting facilities, would provide material to the new facility.
More information on GreenWaste and its sister companies can be found at www.greenwaste.com or www.z-best.com.