Jason Perry, a representative of PPD of WV One, spoke to the Greenbrier County Commission and the public about the proposed biomass plant in Sam Black on Tuesday, January 24.
Perry explained that he is a native of Athens and this influenced his decision to locate within West Virginia, with the Greenbrier Valley Economic Development Corporation introducing them to sites throughout the county.
“We looked at numerous sites in Greenbrier County,” Perry said. “The one closest to the interstate, to be perfectly honest, that had the least amount of impact on the community, housing, is why we chose the site. We’re not here to upset the community. We won’t create noise, there are no smokestacks, there’s no smell. There are trucks that come in and out, about 24 trucks a day, that come in and empty biomass or pick up fuel, but they’re coming in to empty and fill up and get back on the interstate as quickly as possible.”
Perry also outlined the specifications of the proposed plant, construction on which is currently planned for March or April, as a newer model of the equipment used in older Proton Power plants in Tennessee and California. The generation four plant will be set up to produce 6.5 million gallons of diesel fuel each year and 7,200 tons of biochar, an organic fertilizer that, according to Perry, studies have found increases crop growth by 60 to 70 percent while reducing water inputs by 80 percent. A study at the University of Tennessee allegedly found that biochar put in the ground seven years ago continued to be potent throughout that time period.
Some questions remain for a few residents though, who remain unconvinced that the technology works as described.
“Since I had [begun] to look at this, my position has not been against the Proton Power plant, we just want accountability,” said Houston Adkins, a resident of the Sam Black area. “We want to make sure the plant [works] as they say.”
Adkins, also admitting he still needs to verify some of the information provided by Perry in the meeting, cited a permit issued by the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation for Proton Power that allegedly lists their plant as an emitter of volatile organic compounds (VOCs).
Adkins also cited a report about another Proton Power plant in Redwood, CA, issued by the Pulp Energy Research Program, reportedly stated that the plant did not operate up to the standards it claimed.
“Maybe its the higher generation of equipment that [Perry] has been speaking of [that doesn’t emit VOCs], I don’t know,” Adkins said. “The issue is … we have a responsibility to verify what Mr. Perry and Proton Power is saying, not just take someone’s word for it.”
Perry responded to Adkin’s comments, saying that the California plant was constructed to deal with municipal solid waste (MSW), or typical trash from residents of the area, a more complicated process than using the wood waste material the proposed Sam Black plant will use.
The proposed plant will produce diesel and biochar from wood slash, the byproducts of the timber industry in West Virginia. According to Perry, timber companies currently do not have a viable means of disposing of slash waste, with much of it being burned off or placed in a landfill. The proposed plant would instead purchase the slash from timber companies, up to 120,000 tons per year, and convert it to diesel and biochar.
“There is no other system that can create on-demand, road-ready diesel fuel,” Perry said.
The plant could also produce power, as an older model in California does, but this will not be the case for the Greenbrier County plant, which is in talks with American Electric Power to purchase power rather than produce it.
Smoke stacks and air pollution coming off the plant were the focus of many questions with surprising answers. The plant will not have any smoke stacks because the technology in the plant does not burn the wood slash it receives. Instead, the plant uses a slower process at much higher heat, up to 2,912 degrees Fahrenheit, to vaporize the slash, which is then reformed through a chemical reaction into diesel and biochar. Any surviving organic material leftover from the process is rerun through the system a second, third, or fourth time until 100 percent of the input material has been converted.
For every ton of wood slash used, half a ton of “gray water,” a type of water Perry claims is similar to water runoff from an irrigation system, is also produced. The plant will be equipped with a sterilization system to treat gray water, make it drinkable water, which is them sold to other companies instead of draining into the local water system.
Perry also claimed that many nonorganic substances, such as mercury, that are run through the system are usually rendered back into a benign, inorganic form by the system and are filtered out through the biochar.
“For example, what if this light bulb shattered and ended up [in the wood we process. These elements] become benign as you run it through our system,” Perry said. “We heat it up, it transfers, and it actually comes out in the biochar. … We know that when we run mercury or something like that through the system, it comes out benign, because we’ve tested it many times.”
Currently the Environmental Protection Agency has classified the Proton Power technology as a nonburning technology, according to Perry, and the plant plans to register as a minor emitter with the agency.
The plant is currently planned to be constructed in March or April, depending on the weather, in the Sam Black area.
Read more in the Wednesday, January 24, edition of The West Virginia Daily News.
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