NX Global Plans to Build Waste to Energy Projects with Blue Green Algae

NX Global and its subsidiary Applied Concepts for Energy (ACEC) have been awarded a $100 million from a private organization based in the US. The funding would be utilized to buy a property and construct a waste-to-energy and algae unit in Canada.

Norm Birmingham, the spokesman for NX Global and ACEC, stated that the project would be built in place of an old paper mill. This project would combine both disposal of waste and production of algae. Municipal solid waste would be sent to the facility where the waste is separated and composting of organic material is done via an anaerobic digestion process resulting in the production of black dirt in seven days. This has to be mixed with other dirt as it is too strong and then on the 14th day it is packed and sold.

The composting leads to formation of CO₂ and is used to fuel algae production. According to Birmingham, two kinds of algae would be produced, the blue-green algae, which would be used as a feedstock for producing biodiesel and the red algae, which would produce a replacement for fish oil. He further mentioned that this project would need 100 acres for algae production. They are still undecided if they are using an outside environment. Two methods are normally used for algae production. One method involves a bag hanging in the greenhouse at 12 feet height and produces thousands of gallons per acre. Each acre has its own water supply and harvesting method and everything is closed loop i.e. if something goes wrong then only one acre is lost. This method is ideal for those algae, which grow rapidly and are used to make lipids and from lipids the biodiesel.

Birmingham revealed that the Canadian project would have all the permits and approvals ready by end of March and it would take 9-12 months for development of the facility after the permitting. The company also has plans of developing a project on similar lines in the US utilizing a section of the $100 funds. The funds would used to lease or purchase a 2 million square foot greenhouse in Virginia, which has been lying vacant for two years. It had previously been used for growing food and bedding plants for nearly 20 years. This project would commence operations 4-6 months after the greenhouse is leased or bought.

Birmingham also disclosed that biodiesel production would not be carried out by his company on either of two sites. Instead the algae feedstock would be conveyed to the already existing biodiesel production facilities. According to him, NX Global would prefer to deliver dried algae but if contracts demand for extracted algae oil then that too would be supplied. He stated that their target was to dry the algae, bale them and supply them to the purchasers who would handle the final production by whatever method they wanted to get the lipids out.

The finance was given on condition that the company would be a BBB Credit rated company or a Federal or Provincial or Local Government entity in Canada and NX Global was working to fulfill these requirements diligently.