Are MSW biofuels feasible?  Can we use MSW as a feedstock for biofuels production? The answer is a resounding “yes”.  Municipal solid waste (MSW) includes lots of different items like paper, food, yard trimmings, plastics, metals, rubber, leather, and textiles, wood, and glass.  According to the EPA, we can recycle many of these, keeping them from ending up in landfills and releasing lots of carbon dioxide. Typically, these wastes are separated in one of three ways.  They are separated into recyclable materials (metals, paper, and plastics) and used for manufacturing recycled products, the organic fraction (putrescible food waste) converted to biogas thru anaerobic digestion, or solid recovered fuel (the parts that cannot be recycled like shredded textiles, wood, paper, card, and plastics), which can be combusted or converted to syngas, and then be processed into advanced biofuels. MSW can also be converted into liquid and gaseous biofuels to produce heat and power or be used as transport fuels, i.e., MSW biofuels.

One advantage of using MSW as a feedstock is that it is often supplied for free.  As feedstock costs account for a large part of a biofuels cost, this balances what can be a relatively high capital cost for gasification systems and fuels synthesis facilities like Fischer Trospch or catalytic conversion, to convert syngas to diesel, jet fuel, or methanol/ethanol.

So, what do MSW experts do?  They can assist with recycling those items that should not end up in landfills and advise on a variety of technologies consisting of several different thermochemical or biological methods of generating energy from waste materials that do end up in landfills. Popular commercial applications currently include combustion and anaerobic digestion for processing municipal solid waste, livestock manure, and food waste at the municipal, farms, and industrial scales. Livestock manure and food waste producers dealing with regulatory pressures are seeking value generation solutions from their waste – another area MSW and anaerobic digestion experts can assist.

With over 150 experts worldwide, Lee Enterprises Consulting has experts in many specific clean and renewable areas, including anaerobic digestion, fermentation, biomass, conversion technologies for things like tires and railroad ties, organic synthesis, fuel additives, ethanol gas, biodiesel fuel including algae biofuels, solid-state and industrial fermentation, green energy grants, ag-biotech, agricultural waste, alcohol fuels, alternative proteins and animal-free products, sustainable foods, beverage fermentation, biocatalysis, biodiesel conversion, biogas production, biomass power, carbon intensity, co2 utilization, combined heat & power, Fischer-Tropsch technology, food waste, hydrothermal carbonization, industrial enzymes, landfill management, microbial fermentation, organic synthesis, plastic pyrolysis, plastic recycling, plastic waste, pyrolysis oil, reactor design, renewable identification number, the Renewable Fuel Standard (rfs2), solid recovered fuels, torrefaction and torrefied biomass, waste to energy, and waste-to-hydrogen.   This is a multidisciplinary group of green energy consultants that is a virtual “one-stop-shop” for any client need and handles projects of all types and sizes.

With over 150 consultants worldwide, Lee Enterprises Consulting has the diverse experts and geographical reach to assist in virtually any bioeconomy project. Our highly qualified teams bring a unique integration of technical, scientific, regulatory, and hands-on experience to any project.  Look at our experts and the services we provide.  Most of our experts are also available to advise and serve as expert witnesses in bioeconomy litigation matters.  For the larger projects, we specialize in putting together full-service, interdisciplinary teams with one point of contact.  See a video about LEC here.  Call us at 1+ (501) 833-8511 or email us for more information.