EnQuest discusses pilot plant in Sault Ste. Marie
June 11, 2008
By Carol Martin
SooToday.com
Jayson and Len Zwierschke are two brothers who talk trash, play in trash and hope to make a lot of money off trash.
Real soon.
And their secret is fluff.
They're the men behind the EnQuest Power machines that turn trash into gas out at the Sault Ste. Marie City landfill.
"The data is in and it's solid," says Jayson Zwierschke. "We're ready to go to Phase 2."
Yesterday, the initiative had some visitors from RBC Royal Bank and some Sault Ste. Marie PUC mucky-mucks.
Jim McLean, RBC's regional vice president for Algoma District and Mike Kornell, the bank's business development manager, wanted to check out the process and see if EnQuest Power is a good fit for some prospective partnerships.
They are shown with EnQuest's Zwierschke, Geoff Meakin of Meakin Forest Enterprises Inc. and Brian Curran, president and chief executive officer of the PUC.
"The EnQuest Power demonstration plant is the first of its kind in the world and it's located in Sault Ste. Marie," Jayson told them. "It operates on municipal solid waste stock, which it converts into a clean synthetic gas that can be used to generate electricity and various energy products like hydrogen that can actually be used to run your car."
"Why is it here in Sault Ste. Marie?" asked Kornell.
"Because I like Mike," Jayson said with a laugh while gesturing toward Michael Wozny, executive director of Development Sault Ste. Marie.
"We are from St. Catharines and we have an office in Niagara," Zwierschke said. "But when it came to setting up our test plant, there were just too many obstacles in that area," he said. "Mike and the team at the Sault Ste. Marie Economic Development Corporation just helped us so much."
Zwierschke said the people at SSMEDC and Development Sault Ste. Marie seemed to immediately grasp the vision of what EnQuest Power is trying to do.
City Council has also been very supportive and when the Zwierschke brothers learned of the City's plan to become a world leader in alternative energy development, they thought the Sault would be a perfect location.
That was four years ago.
Now, enQuest is ready to go back to Council with its data ducks in a row and a lucrative proposal, says Zwierschke.
"And we have offers of interest coming in from Mexico, Australia and parts of Europe," he says.
Ultimately, the Zwierschkes plan to take over the world's garbage.
"There really is no need for things like this," Jayson said, as he pointed to the City landfill behind him. "Our process is clean, efficient and will make landfills obsolete. You won't be seeing this very much longer."
The process involves bringing trash to a processing centre where it is sorted and recyclables removed.
Then, it's shredded to a fine fluff.
"Fluff is the secret of the process," said Len Zwierschke. "It creates more surface area for the chemical reaction and is the most efficient way to break down the material."
Any carbon-based material, added Jayson.
The fluff passes through a rotary kiln where it's superheated and broken down on a molecular level.
What comes out is processed and separated into synthetic gas that can be used in almost any way natural gas can be used, and an inert, sterile substance that resembles greenish slag.
Jayson said EnQuest is looking into applications for the slag as well as recirculating lost heat from the system to co-generate electricity and make the process even more efficient.
And what about the smell?
What smell?
Even with the bay doors to the building open, there was no perceptible odour outside the building.
Inside was only a bit stinky, right in the room where trash was being sorted and shovelled into the shredders.
And noise.
Outside the building, it was quiet enough yesterday to tape an interview.
"This sort of a facility could be scaled up or down to fit a community's needs," said Jayson. "It can also be located in a residential neighbourhood with little or no impact on peoples' daily lives."
"No matter what the economy does we will have trash and we will have a need for electicity," said Len.
Future developments for EnQuest Power include production of auto fuel grade hydrogen, increased electricity production and more utilization of biproducts.
They plan to develop those leads both here in the Sault and anywhere in the world where people want to reduce trash in landfills, reduce carbon emissions and generate cheap, clean electricity.
And you need to know that when Jayson Zwierschke flies, he buys the carbon tags and donates his carbon credits to charity.