Mantria Update #20

The Waste Conversion Technology is fresh in the minds of the State of Hawaii. The following two articles mention Hawaii's urgent waste disposal situation and our technology.





Lingle vetoes biofuel financing plan

Company that planned to turn waste into energy would have received $40M bond

by Nancy Cook Lauer
West Hawaii Today
ncook-lauer@westhawaiitoday.com
Thursday, July 8, 2010 8:50 AM HST

HILO -- A plan to convert Big Island gorse, macadamia nut shells and other waste into biofuel took a step backward this week, with Gov. Linda Lingle's veto of a $40 million special purpose revenue bond.

The plan was championed by Dante Carpenter, former Hawaii County mayor and current chairman of the state Democratic Party. Carpenter is secretary of the board and registered agent for Carbon Bio-Engineers Inc., an Oahu company.

"This bill is objectionable because the firm in question and members of its management have not satisfactorily resolved issues associated with the patent and licensing of a process developed by the University of Hawaii," Lingle, a Republican, said Tuesday in her veto message.



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Jonathan Roberts, licensing associate with the UH

Office of Technology Transfer & Economic Development, said his office did not contact the governor or speak with her about the licensing issue.

Carbon Bio-Engineers Inc. was created after the hostile takeover of its predecessor, Carbon Diversion Inc., by a company that later became the subject of a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation into a Ponzi scheme.

Roberts said Carbon Diversion was licensed to use Flash Carbonization and other patents developed by UH professor Michael Antal. But the company canceled the licenses, saying it had developed its own technology for which it has applied for patents.

"We have no way of knowing whether it infringes on our patents or not," Roberts said.

Antal said he hadn't talked with Lingle's office about the issue either. He added, however, that "the governor did the right thing."

Special purpose revenue bonds are bonds repaid by private developers but, because they're backed by the state Legislature, there is no federal tax charged on the interest.

The House unanimously passed the bill, HB 2497, and the Senate passed it with only three opposed, two of whom are Republicans.

The project has been years in the making, and initial steps have already been taken to remove invasive gorse plants from 13,000 acres of land on the slopes of Mauna Kea owned by the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands.

That project, which hopes to process 58 to 72 tons of gorse an acre into 21,000 to 26,000 gallons of synthetic diesel fuel, is managed by the nonprofit Oiwi Lokahi O Ka Mokupuni O Keawe in partnership with DHHL, Carbon Bio-Engineers and others.

Carpenter did not return a telephone message Wednesday. But he said in testimony to the Legislature that his company has "developed a hybrid gasification carbonization process, which can reduce various organic feedstock ... into carbon products and synthetic gas."

"CBEI continues working directly with its associations and DHHL to engage in essential projects on the island of Hawaii," Carpenter said in testimony. "In addition to sales of electrical power to the local utilities, the use of thermal fluid output from the cogeneration facility would be utilized by existing and planned businesses for both manufacturing and processing enterprises with economic benefits to the surrounding community."

The Democrat-majority Legislature praised the project for its potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, reduce waste going to the landfills, reduce transportation and disposal costs, create local technical and semitechnical jobs and produce renewable energy for local use.

"Your committee understands that Carbon Bio-Engineers Inc., will be utilizing a patented technology developed at the Hawaii Natural Energy Institute, University of Hawaii, to reduce various waste streams to useful, high-yield marketable products," said Sen. Mike Gabbard, D-Kapolei, Royal Kunia, chairman of the Senate Committee on Energy and Environment, in recommending passage of the bill. "In addition, the project will contribute to the standards projected for cogeneration facilities by the Hawaii Clean Energy Initiative, and will provide employment where the facilities are located."














I found a recent article on CNBC concerning Hawaii's inability to dispose of its waste.

Honolulu's Trash Woes Get Worse
Published: Tuesday, 24 Aug 2010 | 10:44 AM ET
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By: AP
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Gigantic piles of shrink-wrapped garbage have been moldering in the heat of a Hawaii industrial park for more than five months, waiting for a place to be shipped.

That wait appeared to end Monday when city officials inked a deal to dispose of the 40 million-pound pile of odious rubbish over the next six months by mostly burning it in an existing waste-to-power plant.


Source: hawaiianwastesystems.com
Shrink wrapped garbage.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

But bigger problems remain for Honolulu as the state's largest city struggles to find a home for all its waste. With its lone dump filling up fast, officials had been counting on a plan to ship at least 100,000 tons of blue, plastic-wrapped garbage bales each year to a landfill near an Indian reservation in Washington state.

But the tribe vehemently objected and won a court ruling last week that put the plan on hold indefinitely. Acting Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell acknowledged as much Monday.

"The city bent over backwards to try to make this shipping effort work, but it is clear that shipping is not a viable option at this time," he said in a statement.

Honolulu makes up 80 percent of Hawaii's population and generates nearly 1.6 million tons of garbage a year. More than a third of the trash is incinerated to generate electricity. The remaining garbage is sent to the 21-year-old Waimanalo Gulch landfill on the island of Oahu's southwestern coast.

But the amount of available land on Oahu is limited, with Honolulu leaders reluctant to add landfills in their backyards and near sites known for their breathtaking, pristine beauty.

And the trash can't be taken elsewhere in the state; the Big Island has by far the most vacant land, and a dump with 71 years of capacity remaining. But a local ordinance bars importation of trash from outside that island.

"Honolulu has all the elements of a form of NIMBYism on steroids," said James Spencer, associate professor of urban and regional planning at the University of Hawaii. "In fact, the only place that is not in Honolulu's backyard seems to be off in Washington state."


RELATED LINKS

Current DateTime: 08:25:27 24 Aug 2010
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Blog: Time to Ditch Plastic Bags
The Greenest States
Trash Inc.: A CNBC Special Report


And Washington state, at least the part overseen by the Yakama Indian Nation, isn't having it. The tribe, by treaty, has a degree of authority over nearly 11 million acres that it ceded to the U.S. government in 1855, including a regional dump in Klickitat County.

That's where a Seattle-based firm called Hawaiian Waste Systems wanted to ship some of Honolulu's trash. Starting last September, the trash was to be shredded and compressed into bales, wrapped in at least eight layers of thick plastic sheets and transported to the landfill, where it was to be covered with 18 inches of soil.

Tribal members were outraged that the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which regulates interstate waste transfers, granted preliminary approval to the shipments. They then went to court.

CONTINUED: What's In the Trash?
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