The City of Marion (“City”) and wastenotIowa, Inc. (WNI), along with other interested parties, has been considering the use of a plasma are gasification plant (“Plant”) as a technology that could reduce their future dependency on landfill disposal. As currently envisioned, the Plant would serve Linn County, including the City and the University of Iowa (“UI”) Oakdale research campus, located in Johnson County. In the next step of their evaluations, the City along with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) has commissioned SCS Engineers (SCS) to perform a formal economic feasibility study of the Plant. The feasibility study included: •Assessing potential for other waste material other than municipal solid waste in the region as supplemental plant feedstock. •Assessing potential markets for the plasma plant byproducts. •Determining the feasibility, requirements and costs related to an interconnect with the power utility grid. •Assessing the option that the UI could potentially be the exclusive power customer for the Plant. •Developing a pro-forma model so that various options can be evaluated for the Plant capacity and material and energy output configurations over an assumed initial 20-year contract operating phase, including; –Production of syngas for conversion to electrical power –Production of syngas for direct use and conversion to fuel products –Production of insulation from slag to enhance project revenues. •Determining the potential economic impact of the Plant on the region.
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