Trashing the Grid: Dearborn Looks to Turn Waste Into Energy

If the plans outlined in Dearborn’s waste-to-energy feasibility study are positive, the city will be taking the adage “waste not want not” to new levels.

Dearborn hired Resource Recycling Systems to look into technologies and possible waste streams that would allow energy to be gleaned from waste produced by the city and its businesses.

“We’d like to be able to get electricity or natural gas,” said Dave Norwood, Dearborn's sustainability coordinator. “It remains to be seen what waste streams we would be able to provide, but we’d like to take the energy and put it back into the grid for use in our industrial sectors.”

Resource Recycling Systems is an environmental consulting and engineering firm based in Ann Arbor that works with communities and businesses to integrate green technologies into their operations.

RRS is currently researching types of waste streams in the Dearborn community and whether they can be efficiently converted into energy.

”They’re looking at waste streams like sewer waste, yard waste, demolition waste, food waste and general municipal solid waste,” Norwood said. “Basically, any energy-rich stuff out there that would end up in a landfill somewhere. It becomes a resource rather than something you just get rid of.”

The study was federally funded by an Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant and will conclude in June.

The results will allow the city to determine if a waste-to-energy system similar to the one in use in Delphi Township would be feasible and appropriate for the Dearborn community.

“There’s a price set on natural gas and electricity and we have to be competitive with the market price that places like Severstal Steel and Ford Motor Co. are paying,” Norwood said of what would make the plan feasible.

“If there’s a way we can lock them in to save them some money and run our plant, that’s the sweet spot.”

The core of this system would be a facility that takes in waste and converts it to electricity and natural gas. The site being considered for the facility is the former powerhouse property on Miller Road.

“It’s a recommended site, and we recommended it because it was a powerhouse for Ford Motor Co. that has a connection to the grid,” Norwood said. “And two of our biggest energy consumers are nearby, too, with Ford and their F-150 plant and Severstal Steel with their blast furnaces.”

If the plan is viable, Norwood said that the city and businesses would likely save money through lower energy and operating costs.

“There is potential to lower costs for residents and businesses through the cost of energy and because you don’t have to pay to take waste to a landfill,” Norwood said.

“And if, say, we produce natural gas at a lower cost for a business like Severstal Steel, they will spend less, be more competitive and possibly save jobs," he added. "And we could do that for a number of businesses.”

Norwood said that after RRS’s plan is reported in June, the city would start looking for funding sources to build and maintain the plant.

“Resource Recycling Systems is supposed to give us a recommendation of go or no-go,” Norwood said. “At that time, if it was feasible, we would start seeking funding, which could come from private businesses, the city or some shared relationship between private and public entities.”