USA, Michigan
The city of Flint, Michigan and an alternative energy company, Swedish Biogas International, announced a joint plan to build a plant to convert waste from the city’s wastewater facility into biomethane. Flint would be the first location for the Swedish company, which hopes to build plants nation-wide, said Peter Unden, the CEO of Swedish Biogas. The project will receive $6 to $10 million in start-up money from federal and state grants as well as Sweden and private money. Initially, the biomethane would fuel Flint’s fleet of municipal vehicles.
The partners hope spin-off businesses will grow up around the operation
to convert engines and gas tanks on private vehicles to biomethane and
provide a source for new jobs. "We can generate clean energy out of
waste and create new jobs for Flint," Flint Mayor Don Williamson said.
"This is the biggest no-brainer in the history of mankind," said James
R. Hiendlmayr, owner of Bio-Gas Technologies in Norwalk, Ohio. "Why
waste something you can put to beneficial use?"
Buses, taxis, garbage trucks and cars in Sweden run on biomethane,
making up about 2 percent of the country’s transportation fuel, Unden
said. There are about 100 biomethane fueling stations across Sweden. A
2007 report estimated that 12,000 vehicles are being fueled with
biomethane worldwide, with 70,000 biomethane-fueled vehicles predicted
by 2010. Europe has most of these vehicles.
