By Madelyn Lipszyc

Edmonton, Alberta will soon become the world's first commercial waste-to-biofuels city. After much planning and testing, Enerkem GreenField Alberta Biofuels (EGAB) has recently been granted a 25-year commercial permit. They will commence construction of a new plant at the end of 2009. Costing $70 million, this facility will take municipal waste (targeted for landfills) and convert it into second generation biofuel. This fuel will then be commercially available for the first time to consumers.

Waste Management already incinerates trash and converts methane to produce renewable energy. However, this new venture will be more environmentally efficient, and will allow Waste Management to potentially meet their goals of doubling renewable energy production and investing in new waste technologies by 2020.

Using a thermo-chemical gasification process, garbage can be transformed into synthetic gas (syngas) and thereafter can be converted to liquid fuels such as ethanol and biochemicals. This process can kill three birds with one stone: the foreign oil dependence, our landfill buildup, and the gasoline/chemical emission problem.

According to the Enerkem website, the company is able to "convert one ton of raw material (dry base) into 360 litres of cellulosic ethanol, which is enough to drive a distance of approximately 2500 kilometres (a drive from Winnipeg to Montreal or from Los Angeles to Houston)." Our economy and our lives are almost entirely dependent on diesel and petroleum for transportation, even though the resource itself is unsustainable. Thus, the new Edmonton plant will surely be an unprecedented model for cities around the globe.

Petrol, or gasoline as we know it, has been damaging the environment through various well-known chemical contaminants. The ICF International group, (specializing in climate change solutions), prepared a report on greenhouse gas emissions in the city of Toronto in 2004, and found that, "Greenhouse gas emissions from the City's vehicle fleet fuel consumption totaled about 58 thousand tons of eCO2." In contrast, once completed, the Edmonton plant alone will reduce emissions by 6 million tons over 25 years.

Biofuel is energy or fuel manufactured from living organisms, food waste, or other raw materials. It can be made from fatty acids, vegetable oils, corn, switchgrass, algae, hydrogen, woodchips, and other natural sources still being discovered. The fuel must have at least 80% renewable materials to be considered a biofuel. It is surprising then, since there are currently numerous biodiesel plants scattered across North America and Europe, that the trend didn't take hold sooner. Enerkem, for example, currently uses such unwanted matter as old power poles to make ethanol. And it will be the first to use garbage as the source for biofuel.

In general, biofuel is a much cleaner alternative because it emits far fewer chemicals than petrol or crude oil. In addition, waste-to-biofuel enables diversion of waste that would otherwise be sent straight to a landfill where it would contaminate the surrounding environment.

The "green production method" highlights often-used contradictory manufacturing processes. Ethanol fuel, made from corn, takes more energy to produce than it provides. Additionally, corn-ethanol is only used in rich countries, and that demand is causing a surge in global food prices. Consequently, food is becoming further out of reach for the poor. With that in mind, numerous ethanol plants are being closed down, or put on hold, so this is a great time for waste-to-fuel conversion to take its place.

It is energy-consuming to gather plants or crops for biofuel, and wasteful because they have nutrition-based purposes. R. E. Schmid of the Associated Press wrote for the Globe and Mail that biofuels made from corn and other crops could cause a surge in the world's water supply and increase the use of pesticides. Even though plant-based biofuels produce cleaner emissions than fossil fuels, trash-based biofuel seems to be the most useful because it not only provides fuel, but also gets rid of our unwanted trash without tampering with the price of food.

It is evident then, why the waste-to-biofuels initiative is such an ingenious solution to our oil dependence, global warming, and over-consumption problems. Turning garbage into anything would be advantageous, but especially during this current automotive recession, waste's ability to be turned into fuel would be most beneficial.

A press release from Newswire about the new Edmonton plant explains that, "Upon completion, the facility will initially produce 36 million litres (9.5 million gallons) of ethanol per year, reducing Alberta's carbon dioxide... the equivalent of removing 12,000 cars off the road every year." Except the cars won't actually be off the road - they will just be free from harmful emissions. Since all these benefits can be accredited from just one plant, the future looks bright for waste-to-fuel conversion.

What waste-to-fuel has, that none of the other biofuels have, is an ability to simultaneously divert our waste, and give us cleaner fuel - a plus on both sides of the equation for waste creators and energy-producers.