WM and InEnTec announce joint venture

Waste Management Inc and InEnTec LLC have announced a partnership which will see the two companies developing and operating plasma gasification facilities using the InEnTec Plasma Enhanced Melter (PEM™) technology. The company will be called S4 Energy Solutions LLC and will process waste from commercial and industrial waste streams to produce renewable energy, environmentally beneficial fuels and electricity.The initial projects for the company will be to process medical and other segregated commercial and industrial waste streams. It may also move into processing of MSW once the technology has been proved economic and scalable for such use.'We see waste as a resource to be recovered, and this joint venture with the PEM™ system will help Waste Management's commercial and industrial customers maximize high energy value waste streams to generate valuable renewable energy products based on their unique environmental and logistical considerations,' says Joe Vaillancourt, MD of Waste Management. 'With InEnTec, Waste Management has found a partner with a promising technology as well as strong management, research and development capabilities to address the hurdles to implementing a new technology.'The PEM™ Process explained…Waste materials are fed into a closed chamber where they are superheated to temperatures of between 10,000 and 20,000 degrees Fahrenheit using an electricity-conducting gas called plasma. The intense heat of the PEM™ rearranges the molecular structure of the waste, transforming organic (carbon-based) materials into an ultra-clean, synthesis gas (syngas). The clean syngas could be converted to transportation fuels such as ethanol and diesel, industrial products like hydrogen and methanol or used as a substitute for natural gas for heating or electricity generation. In a secondary stage of the PEM™ process, inorganic (non-carbon-based) materials are transformed into environmentally beneficial products.'Our PEM™ systems are the leading technology for commercial plasma gasification, and Waste Management will provide much of the process knowledge that will help make our joint venture successful,' says Jeff Surma, president and chief executive officer of S4 Energy Solutions. 'The PEM™ technology has demonstrated its ability to process a number of waste streams, and we are looking forward to developing more projects that sustainably manage waste while recovering valuable energy and resources.'This joint venture will move Waste Management Inc towards two of its sustainability goals, doubling its renewable energy production to provide enough power for the equivalent of two million homes by 2020, and investing in emerging technologies for managing waste.