Biowaste to Products Project Backed by USDA’s William J. Orts : Greenbelt Resources Bringing Wine Waste to Bioethanol Plant to Paso Robles, California

California based renewable energy technology firm, Greenbelt Resources Corporation (OTC: GRCO), is to develop the Paso Robles ECOsystem (PRECO) an interconnected waste to energy system designed to produce 500,000 gallons (1.9 million litres) of bioethanol from a variety of waste feedstocks available in the Paso Robles area.

The company said that PRECO utilises such feedstocks as waste trub from the nearby Firestone Brewery and winery wastes from the over 310 wineries in the local area.

"PRECO is the solution to a challenge inherent in current local-scale technologies—their size. Unlike many traditional industrial-scale production technologies currently in operation, PRECO is designed and optimised for small to medium sized operations such as agricultural and beverage processors," explained Darren Eng, Greenbelt Resources CEO.

"Our ecosystem concept enables the cost-effective transformation of wastes into value-added bioproducts including potable water," he added.

The company claimed that PRECO will be the first independently owned, local-scale bioethanol solution in California and be tailored to utilise the local Paso Robles supply of agricultural and beverage residues.

GRCO also said that its ecosystem can also be custom-designed to transform the feedstocks of any local area into bioethanol and bioproducts.

The resulting bioethanol from the new plant will be sold into California's transportation market under the state's Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS), leading to higher revenues - legislation was designed to lower toxic tailpipe emissions and carbon dioxide.

"I share (the) vision to create a transformative commercial biorefinery based upon strategies that will work in California... Addressing how we deal with the many carbon-based by-products is an important issue in agriculture and ag-related businesses... (it is) a business model to deploy hundreds to thousands of systems across the country and around the world,” commented Ph.D. Research Leader, Bioproducts for the USDA, William J. Orts, in a letter to California Energy Commission Chair Robert B Weisenmiller, Ph.D.

“Successful deployment... will solve local waste issues while creating local sources of ultra-low-carbon renewable fuel. I confirm to you that our team at the USDA has confidence in their process and aim to help them toward success by making our equipment and expertise available to them, because their success will prove beneficial to California's (rural) economy," the letter continued.

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