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PHG Energy (PHGE) and the city of Lebanon, Tennessee, have signed a contract that will provide an environmentally sustainable method of waste disposal and produce green power in the process.
The waste-to-energy technology, which will go on line early next year, is a downdraft gasification plant that will cleanly convert up to 64 tons per day of blended waste wood, scrap tires and sewer sludge into a fuel gas that will generate up to 300Kw of electricity. The generation of this power will provide for the plant's internal power needs as well as contribute electricity to the wastewater treatment plant where it will be located.
“This is not incineration or burning,” Lebanon Mayor Philip Craighead pointed out. “There is no smoke or odor. The feedstock material is broken down at very high temperatures in a sealed vessel, and about 95 percent of what goes into the gasifier comes out as the fuel gas.” Craighead also said the remaining 5 percent to 10 percent of material exiting the gasifier is a high-carbon biochar that can be recycled or sold for agricultural or industrial uses.
PHGE President Tom Stanzione said the Lebanon project will deploy what his company believes is the world’s largest downdraft gasifier and added, “This is the same basic technology we utilized in all our previous designs, and we have upgraded capacity and power density to accomplish a lot more gasification in what is not a lot more space.”
The Large Frame gasifier, as the company refers to it, has been vetted through a rigorous testing process for more than two years at PHGE’s research facility. A standard PHGE gasifier can convert up to 12 tons of feedstock per day to fuel gas, while the Lebanon model will process up to 64 tons per day without substantially increasing the footprint of the plant.
The plant is projected to keep more 8,000 tons of material out of landfills each year – the equivalent of a line of trucks over 4 miles long. Carbon dioxide emissions will be reduced as well, keeping over 2,500 tons out of the atmosphere each year. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, that equates to the CO2 produced annually to provide electricity to 312 homes, or the annual Greenhouse Gas Emissions from over 450 passenger vehicles.
Funding of the $3.5 million capital cost has been obtained through a federal program that awards bond subsidies to local projects that conserve energy. Those Qualified Energy Conservation Bonds are allocated through the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC), and repay communities about 70 percent of interest expense.
The Lebanon project will mark the 14th gasifier installation for PHGE. The company’s first municipal installation was commissioned in Covington, Tennessee, in 2013. Prior deployments of the thermo chemical process were for industrial brick manufacturing clients to replace natural gas usage by cleanly converting wood waste to what is called producer gas or synthetic gas.
Craighead said that the city is viewing this installation as a first stage in a larger plan to convert the city’s household and commercial garbage to energy in the future. He added, “We see keeping our garbage out of the landfill and using it to make energy as major goals for Lebanon in coming years. This is a problem that is coming straight at all of us, and we are going to make sure our city is ready with answers. One of our primary criteria is that the solutions we want will have to make good financial sense along the way.”
The Lebanon project marks another milestone for PHGE in the area of clean waste disposal and sustainable energy production. To date, PHGE has:
ABOUT PHG ENERGY
PHG Energy, based in Nashville was formed in 2010 to develop, manufacture, and install industrial- grade downdraft gasification systems. The technology employs a non-burning thermo-chemical process in which waste materials or renewable biomass is cleanly converted to a fuel gas with combustion properties similar to natural gas. The fuel can be utilized for thermal applications, such as kilns or boilers, or used to produce electricity. PHG Energy is a private company owned by a Nashville family that has operated a large regional Caterpillar dealership for over 70 years.
PHG Energy’s commercially proven waste-to-energy technology is employed by customers to convert industrial and municipal waste, or renewable biomass, to a clean-burning fuel gas through an environmentally friendly thermo-chemical process. That synthetic gas can be utilized like natural gas to produce economical electric or thermal power. Uses include:
Boilers
Kilns
Thermal Oxidizers
ORC Electric Generators
Internal Combustion Engine Generators
Waste or biomass feedstock choices for PHG Energy’s downdraft gasification technology are driven by local availability and cover a wide variety of carbon-based materials:
Industrial Waste
Municipal Wood Waste & Sewer Sludge
Agricultural Waste
Municipal Solid Waste
Scrap Tires (TDF)
Forest Waste
Purpose-Grown Biomass Crops
Strong Partnerships
PHG Energy was formed in 2010 to develop sales, manufacturing and installation capabilities for this state-of-the-art gasification technology. The quality people who stand behind the PHG Energy team blend years of experience in a wide variety of fields to create a powerful alliance and a full range of resources.
Thompson Machinery Commerce Corporation, a highly respected, multi-state Caterpillar heavy machinery and power systems distributor, provides a key partnership through its resources in generation equipment, construction and agricultural industries.
In September 2012, PHG Energy purchased exclusive intellectual property rights to the downdraft gasification technology from the Associated Physics of America (APA), a nationally-recognized scientific development corporation, and integrated that company’s research, manufacturing and administrative personnel into its team.
Through these unique partnerships, PHG Energy is able to stand at the forefront of emerging technologies, continuously pursuing new applications, feedstock and equipment capabilities to provide a wide range of customers effective waste-to-energy solutions.
Utilizing readily available renewable fuel sources to replace or augment burning of fossil fuels gives our customers immediate bottom-line results and positions them for the global shift to renewable energy.
While every project differs in scale, feedstock source, and application, PHG Energy’s installation experience and ongoing research provide a strong foundation to address the challenges of renewable energy projects. A critical segment of our proposal for all customers is a detailed study of current energy usage and costs in order to quantify the full economic benefits of PHG technology.
Sustainability
Carbon footprints and credits. Renewable Fuel Standards (RFP). Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS). Renewable Energy Standards (RES). American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. New EPA and DOE standards and regulations. The list of programs and requirements grows longer each month. Add to those the dozens of actions taken by individual state legislatures. Add to that the ongoing initiatives being adopted in Europe, Canada and a host of other countries.
All developed nations are taking major steps toward a new energy future. Following years of debate and study, lawmakers in Washington D.C. and around the world are writing and implementing legislation to encourage, and often mandate, the use of renewable resources for energy production. This is often done without focusing on technologies that can offer the scale and cost to compete with traditional fossil fuels.
This push for environmental stewardship, coupled with economic drivers, is rapidly changing the landscape for any utility, business or institution currently tied to the use of fossil fuels as their primary energy source. Indeed, all those whose livelihood and/or very existence depend on a consistent source of fuel are faced with making important choices in the very near future.
Beyond the economic investment required for conversion to alternative energy sources, the sheer lack of availability of technology and proven equipment to harness reliable power from wind and solar resources alone presents an often-insurmountable barrier.
While the media has focused attention on a few huge wind farms, massive solar arrays, tidal generators and other “newsworthy” efforts, a group of scientists from Associated Physics of America (APA) has revolutionized the renewable landscape by both improving and up-scaling the well-known process of downdraft gasification. This gasification process that produces a combustible gas through a physical and chemical phase change was virtually abandoned 50 years ago with the advent of cheap oil.
Solving the scaling issues that confined the previous downdraft configurations to small residential and automotive use has allowed PHG Energy’s Process Heat Gasifiers (PHG) to move effectively into large industrial applications and bring key attributes:
The new technology and equipment has been thoroughly tested and proven in industrial applications.
Biomass and other feedstock to fuel the process are readily available and renewable.
Pollution from the gaseous fuel production process is practically non-existent.
The resulting fuel burns as cleanly as natural gas.
Projects that can be economically viable regardless of incentives.
The next generation of biofuels is already here. The equipment and technology to implement this energy production source is proven and available.
Companies adapting this technology will be leaders as the movement toward a true green-energy economy continues. And they will be true stewards of our environment.
Our customers have the ability to configure a system to fuel their specific industrial or institutional energy needs, and to scale their equipment depending on the size of those requirements.
The energy needed, the feedstock available, and the chemical properties inherent in the resulting Producer Gas or Synthetic Gas are some of the important variables that enter into each unique engineering project.
Understanding those individual requirements of customers’ systems enables us to recommend equipment and configuration that will provide a consistent supply of affordable and renewable energy for many decades to come.
We bring engineering expertise and experience to bear in the design, construction and ongoing management of the project. Customers also receive expert assistance in financial forecasting and budgeting, site planning, feedstock sourcing, storage and handling, and biochar recycling.
Waste to Energy and Renewable Fuels
PHG Energy’s modern downdraft gasification technology allows the use of existing waste streams or a flexible array of feedstock for conversion to combustible gaseous fuel for kilns, boilers or electrical generation.
The choice of feedstock is a critical element in the economic analysis of the planned installation, and in the design and construction of the mechanical and control equipment to fuel the recommended gasification equipment.
Assisting customers in choosing and sourcing suitable and renewable local feedstock is an important part of the overall service provided. PHG Energy can provide assistance to users in the procurement, contracting and price forecasting of feedstock, although in some instances acceptable feedstock is readily available as a product of the customer’s ongoing industrial, waste management or manufacturing operations.
| Company Name | PHG Energy, LLC |
| Business Category | |
| Address | PHG Energy 3048 Owen Drive Nashville, Tennessee United States ZIP: 37013 |
| President | Tom Stanzione |
| Year Established | NA |
| Employees | NA |
| Memberships | NA |
| Hours of Operation | NA |
| Phone Number | Locked content | Subscribe to view |
| Fax Number | Locked content | |
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| Website | Locked content |
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