Conversion & Biomass to Energy

Oct. 27, 2008 Seminar: Evaluating Conversion Technologies for Municipal Waste Management

As part of the Board’s Climate Change and Conversion Technology Speaker Series, and in partnership with the Sacramento Municipal Utilities District, James Binder & Susan Higgins, consultants with Alternative Resources Inc. (ARI), offered a presentation titled “Evaluating Conversion Technologies for Municipal Waste Management.” The speakers discussed anaerobic digestion, hydrolysis, gasification, pyrolysis, and how local governments are approaching the evaluation of these technologies.

The seminar included discussions of net energy production, emissions and the economics of Conversion Technologies and the status of U.S. public initiatives in this area. Mr. Binder and Ms. Higgins have been assisting numerous agencies, cities, and counties in the process of evaluating the role of these technologies. ARI’s clients include the County of Los Angeles, the county and city of Santa Barbara, and the New York City Department of Sanitation.

Seminar Information

• Announcement (Adobe PDF, 163 KB)
• Presentation (Adobe PDF, 6.2 MB)
• Video (Windows Media, 282 Kbps, 1:35 hours)

To improve your experience we recommend you download the slides and watch them along the video. You will need to have two browser windows open (one to view the presentation slides and one for the video).

Additional Background Material

• New and Emerging Conversion Technologies, Report to the Legislature, June 2007 (Adobe PDF, 522 KB) .
• Current Anaerobic Digestion Technologies Used for Treatment of Municipal Organic Solid Waste, March 2008 (Adobe PDF, 1.8 MB).
• Evaluation of MSW Conversion Technologies (County and City of Santa Barbara), April 2008 (Adobe PDF, 2.2 MB).
• Los Angeles County Conversion Technologies Evaluation Report, October 2007 (Adobe PDF, 8.1 MB).
• Summary Report: Evaluation of Alternative Solid Waste Treatment Technologies (City of Los Angeles), September 2005 (Adobe PDF, 903 KB).
• Evaluation of New and Emerging Solid Waste Technologies (New York City), September 2004 (Adobe PDF, 885 KB).

For additional information, contact Jacques Franco.

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