Nick Fetty | June 6, 2014

This week, the world’s first municipal facility that converts household garbage into biofuels opened in Edmonton, Canada.

Using a system developed by Canadian clean technology company Enerkem, the facility will be able to convert 100,000 tons of solid waste into 38 million liters of biofuels. These biofuels (methanol and ethanol) can be used to create everything from ethanol-blended gasoline to windshield wiper fluid to paint. The City of Edmonton, which currently diverts up to 60 percent of landfill waste through recycling and composting, aims to increase this diversion rate to 90 percent by 2016.

Iowa Watch recently published an article that discussed the concept of converting waste into biofuels in Iowa. Much like with wind energy, Iowa has made proactive investments in biofuels. Iowa was second to Texas for biodiesel production capacity in 2013 and construction is wrapping up on a $200 million biodiesel facility in Neveda that is expected to be operational later this year.

For more information about the Canadian plant, check out this brochure and this article from the Edmonton Journal.