The two companies have formed an alliance to mutually obtain contracts for waste-to-ethanol facilities and for Future Fuel’s proposed $84 million waste-to-ethanol facility, to be built in the Toms River district of New Jersey.
Future Fuels has signed a letter of intent to purchase a 100 tonne-per-day Startech Plasma Converter System (PCS) for installation at the Toms River facility, scheduled to go on line in late 2007, with plans to install further PCS units at a later date.
The Startech PCS units are said to safely and completely destroy tyres in a process that results in a clean synthetic gas product called Plasma Converted Gas (PCG).
The PCS will be attached to the front of the Future Fuel system. PCG produced will be piped directly into Future Fuel’s own system to produce commercial fuel-grade ethanol for sale, according to the two companies.
Future Fuels president Jack Young said the combined technologies of the two companies provided significant opportunities in the fuel-hungry US and further afield.
“Where Startech provides front-end technology to transform a variety of waste products into syngas, FFI provides the back-end catalytic process to convert that syngas into useful products such as ethanol, higher alcohol fuels and synthetic fuels, like diesel, gasoline and kerosene,” Young said.
The two companies will also work to further progress some of Startech’s existing initiatives in Europe, Asia and South America.
The new facility will be built with the assistance of the New Jersey Economic Development Authority, which has already announced preliminary approval of an $US84 million tax-exempt bond financing for the design, construction and start-up of the anticipated 52 million gallon-per-year waste-to-ethanol production facility.
The official NJEDA resolution approval enables Future Fuels to proceed with the bond rating, underwriting and placement process to secure the funds.
