Article: Lebanon, Tennessee, Gasification Plant Opens

Nashville, Tennessee-based PHG Energy (PHGE) has opened its Lebanon, Tennessee, facility. The gasification plant, which cost the city $3.5 million, is designed to save 16 million pounds of waste every year.

The company signed a contract with the city in 2015 to build the plant, which will use scrap wood, tires and sewer sludge from Wilson County, Tennessee, and within a 20-mile area.

The wood and tires will be transported to a staging area where they will be ground down to a usable size. From there, the material is sent to the plant. A series of chemical processes converts 95 percent of the waste into hot water, which will go to the wastewater treatment plant next door to the gasification plant. The process will create up to 300 kilowatts of electricity, which will be used to run both the gasification plant and the wastewater treatment plant.

The plant will convert up to 64 tons per day of waste into fuel gas. Five percent of the waste turns into biochar, which will be sold for fertilizer.