The company tried educational chatbots and cryptocurrency. Then nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, of movies and cars. Even a service to Catholic churches allowing them to manage their finances using blockchain instead of banks.
None of it succeeded. Now, the firm with a troubled financial history has suddenly changed its plans to convert roughly 7,000 tons of plastic each year into ultra-low sulfur diesel fuel in a low-income neighborhood in Fayetteville where more than 70 percent of 731 residents in the census block group are minorities, and 38 percent are low-income, according to state data.The facility would have been just 900 feet from Blounts Creek, a tributary to the Cape Fear River.
Waste Energy Corp. had intended to operate a furnace used in a high-temperature, no-oxygen process called pyrolysis there in an 18,000-square-foot warehouse near Sam Cameron Avenue and Cool Spring Street, converting the plastic waste to ultra-low sulfur diesel fuel.
However, Scott Gallagher, Waste Energy’s CEO, said Thursday it would no longer pursue pyrolysis at Cool Spring Street, but seek an alternative location in other parts of the city or in Cumberland County that are zoned heavy industrial. The company would have needed to obtain a special use permit from the city to operate the pyrolysis unit at Cool Spring Street.
The technology could also potentially release toxic PFAS into the air in a city already besieged by the toxic compounds.
The company had previously discussed the possibility of an alternate location, Gallagher said, and “after evaluating the response from the community and the other available options,” the company decided to accept and prepare the plastic feedstock at that location, but not operate the pyrolysis unit there.
“The machines will go in as scheduled but in a place that is acceptable to the city, the county and the community,” Gallagher said. Community opposition was mounting against the proposal, Gallagher said, because of the proximity of homes near the facility. “We want to work with the community, not force it through.
“We made this decision internally because we felt it is in the best interest of all parties.”
If Waste Energy finds another location, Gallagher said it would process as much as 30 tons per day of plastics sourced from throughout the East Coast using pyrolysis, which breaks down materials at very high temperatures in the oxygen-free furnace. Waste Energy announced Feb. 18 that it had received a first round of $175,000 in financing and would begin operating by June 1 “pending completion of the site buildout, permitting and compliance approvals.”
The company said it expects to generate between $1.5 million and $5 million in revenue during its first operating year. The plant would be the company’s first in the United States and would employ 10 people, scaling up to 75 over the next three to five years, Gallagher said. More of this article (Inside Climate News) - link - more like this (pyrolysis) - link - more like this (USA) - link
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