It's a dream ripe with possibility -- a process that takes waste and turns it into ethanol with no ecological impact. The byproducts in this closed system would instead generate electricity.
No toxic fumes, no waste products to pass on and new jobs created -- it sounds like a science fiction utopia.
But it's science, not fiction, according to leaders at Elkhorn Industries Inc., housed in the former Georgia-Pacific plant on Superior's Connors Point.
"We're an independent business first and foremost," said Erik Monge, operations manager for Elkhorn. "We're just finding a very unique way to go about it."
Elkhorn is a reload center for logging trucks that employs nine people. The business is installing machinery to produce wood pellets for stoves. It should be operational in April.
Meanwhile, a regional push has been under way to create eco-industrial parks.
"Eco-industries consume raw materials, but they try to recycle everything else and dispose as little as possible," Monge said. "Everything is a closed loop."
"This kind of initiative fits Northwestern Wisconsin," said Bob Browne, Douglas County Board supervisor, at a recent Superior Days training session.
"This is not a new idea; this is a work in progress."
It also is one of the four main issues delegates will speak to state legislators about during Superior Days 2006, Feb. 28 and March 1 in Madison, Wis. The Superior Days delegation will ask for money for a regional eco-industrial development team that can focus on planning and executing eco-industrial businesses. Browne told delegates that they are hoping for about $200,000 annually for two to five years.
"I can't tell you how important this is to northern Wisconsin," he said. "It will affect all of our lives, all of our kids' lives, all of our grandkids' lives."
The $94 million plan for Elkhorn would pair emerging technology with technology that has been in use for more than 100 years.
According to Barry Hanson, an independent renewable energy consultant and author of the book "Energy Power Shift," the process has no emissions of any significance.
And, said Hanson, with feed stock that could range from garbage and sewage to used tires and demolition waste, "You would actually get paid to take the fuel."
The possible benefits to the region include energy production, jobs and even a local fuel source.
"Ethanol is being considered very seriously as a basis for the whole economy," Hanson said.
"This region could stand alone and shine," Monge said. "Minnesota and Wisconsin would be the ethanol hot spot of the nation."
And, both Hanson and Monge said, this type of ethanol production is not competitive with corn-based ethanol production.
"This would be ethanol made from something other than corn -- biomass waste, basically stuff they're putting in landfills now," Monge said. "This process, if you put it right next-door to a standard ethanol plant, they would feed each other."
Monge ticked off the hurdles left to clear: Getting the permits, receiving the financing and proving the technology. Although a pilot catalytic bioreactor has been in operation for more than four years, Monge said, it has never been tested in a commercial operation.
Elkhorn has requested funding in the form of grants or loan guarantees from the state and federal government.
The rest of the money would come from owners and private investors, Monge said.
If all three hurdles are cleared, the eco-industrial business would be up and running within 18 months, Monge said.
And that would bring another dream to life for Elkhorn -- more employees.
"We'd love to have several hundred cars parked out here," Monge said.Duluth News Tribune
