Taylor Biomass holds groundbreaking ceremony in NY

Taylor Biomass President and CEO Jim Taylor officially broke ground on a 20-megawatt biomass gasification plant in Montgomery, N.Y., on Dec. 6, accompanied by project supporters U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., and Rep. Maurice Hinchey, D-N.Y.

Schumer and Hinchey have worked with officials at Taylor Biomass for the past two years, while urging the U.S. DOE to award the project a $100 million loan guarantee. In August, Taylor Biomass was notified that the project would receive the loan guarantee pending a due diligence review. Besides the loan guarantee, the project will also be able to utilize a 30 percent federal grant, both of which are part of the Recovery Act.

Now, the plant has all necessary local and state approvals. It will be co-located with Taylor Recycling Facility and will expand the recycling facility’s capability to accept wood waste and construction and demolition (C&D) debris, as well as municipal solid waste (MSW). Its current capacity is 307 tons of C&D waste and 100 tons of wood waste per day, and that will increase to 450 tons of wood waste and 500 tons of MSW per day.

Proposed site modifications include improvements to the existing C&D processing structure and construction of a new post-collection separation facility structure, two biomass storage silos, the gasification unit and a power generation pad.

When complete, the facility will be capable of powering approximately 27,000 homes.

As far as emissions and waste reductions, the facility has the potential to eliminate 5 million tons of greenhouse gasses each year and reduce the amount of waste sent to landfills by more than 30 million tons. Expected project emissions are about half that of equivalent MSW disposal in a landfill and about 34 percent lower than emissions from an incinerator handling a similar amount of MSW, according to Taylor Biomass.

The facility will also benefit to a degree from the recent decision of the New York Public Service Commission’s decision to allow C&D wood sourced from material recovery facilities to be eligible to receive renewable energy credits (RECs) under the state renewable portfolio standard (RPS), according to Taylor. He said Taylor Biomass will be the first MSW biomass project to go through the New York RPS process.

Taylor added that start-up and commissioning of the facility is slated for the last quarter of 2012.