McKittrick will be speaking at Yale University’s Center for Industrial Ecology on April 22, 2013. This year’s theme is Industrial Ecology as a Source of Competitive Advantage and participants will explore all aspects of industrial ecology and how it can be a competitive advantage for businesses

“We are in a whole new field at Yale, industrial ecology, that studies physical resource flows and transformations,” said Dr. Marian Chertow, Director of Yale’s Industrial Environmental Management Program. “Meeting Tom McKittrick and visiting the ReVenture site showed that physical resources such as old industrial land, retired facilities, and discarded equipment, could be the means through which new businesses could recolonize old sites and bring life back to abandoned areas.”

Yale University’s Center for Industrial Ecology was established in September 1998 to provide an organizational focus for research in industrial ecology. The Center brings together Yale staff, students, visiting scholars, and practitioners to develop new knowledge at the forefront of the field. Research is carried out in collaboration with other segments of the Yale community, other academic institutions, and international partners.

Recently four graduate students from Yale spent one week at ReVenture Park studying the regional plastics recycling market and its participants. Their goal was to identify the gaps in this highly fragmented industry to identify potential plastics recycling projects that could use ReVenture Park’s extensive infrastructure and existing facilities. Already their work has led to negotiations with several industry players interested in expanding their operations at the site.

Governor McCrory and Tom McKittrick

“This project is an extraordinary example of how public and private sectors can partner to benefit the economy and the environment,” Governor McCrory said. “This brownfields project will create jobs and allow us to transform a once highly contaminated site into a new and thriving energy-related complex.”

ReVenture West is the contaminated acreage within ReVenture Park™, which is expected to become a unique hub for renewable energy projects and projected to generate more than 700 new jobs.

Located in northwest Charlotte, ReVenture Park is the site of a former textile dye-manufacturing complex and has a long history of chemical releases. In 1983, the site was determined to be contaminated enough to be placed on the federal Superfund list for cleanup. In 1988, the site also came under examination for its treatment and disposal of hazardous wastes.

“At DENR, our mission is to protect our state’s environment and natural resources while enhancing the quality of life for North Carolina’s citizens,” said Secretary John Skvarla. “Thanks to the vision of the developers of ReVenture Park and the structure of our Brownfields Program, this project will allow us to reuse this land, protect the environment and create jobs.”

Clariant Corporation, the site’s owner since 1985, ceased dye operations at the site in 2005 and has spent about $40 million cleaning up contamination mostly caused by previous owners. ReVenture Park is partnering with Clariant to enhance the cleanup activities at the site as it prepares the site for redevelopment.

ReVenture West is expected to produce about 245 jobs, $73.5 million in investment and up to $12 million in environmental remediation. ReVenture East is expected to bring 485 jobs and $235 million in investment.

“Old, unused manufacturing facilities shouldn’t be liabilities,” said Tom McKittrick, president and founder of Forsite Development, Inc., and the lead developer for ReVenture Park. “Developing an energy park on a dormant industrial complex is an opportunity where the private sector, public policy and environmental interests align to promote the clean energy economy. We are transforming liabilities into assets – the essence of recycling.”

Productive reuse of a property with such extensive regulatory history is rare because of the uncertainty in future cleanup liabilities. The brownfields agreement with ReVenture Park removes those uncertainties in a way that permits suitable redevelopment while continuing cleanup actions required to make the site safe for the proposed reuse.

The entire eco-industrial park will include businesses devoted to manufacturing; alternative energy research and production; recycling and regeneration of materials; post-secondary vocational and training facilities; utilities and waste water treatment; agriculture for fuel production; composting and land conservation. The ReVenture project also will include a 177-acre conservation easement that connects the Carolina Thread Trail to the U. S. National White Water Center. Wildlife habitat protection and enhancement is a critical component of the project.

Gaston Gazette

Two local cities are making plans to team up with Charlotte to treat their wastewater rather than pay for expensive upgrades to aging wastewater treatment plants.

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources will require both Mount Holly and Belmont to make significant improvements to their existing wastewater treatment plants in order to meet state regulations that dictate how much nitrogen, phosphorus and wastewater can be discharged into Lake Wylie and the Catawba River.

Mount Holly has been looking at different options for its aging wastewater treatment plant for about six years, said Utilities Director James Friday.

Mount Holly City Council approved a nonbinding agreement this month that would allow the Queen City to treat its wastewater. Belmont City Council signed a similar agreement in 2011.

“I think the main driver behind it is not only is it better for the environment — everybody’s going through this new state of the art plant — we would also be more cost effective going forward,” Friday said.

Under the agreement between Mount Holly and Charlotte, Charlotte would build a regional wastewater treatment plant near Long Creek in Mecklenburg County. Mount Holly would pay up to $14 million for a pumping station, main pipeline and facility to transfer wastewater to Charlotte. Mount Holly would pay Charlotte for operating and maintaining those items, according to the agreement.

Contracting with Charlotte for wastewater treatment would save Mount Holly $15 million to $20 million, Friday said.

It would cost Belmont at least $12 million to upgrade its plant, according to an estimate from a few years ago, said Belmont Utilities Director Chuck Flowers.

“A bigger plant is more efficient,” Friday said. “They can treat the waste cheaper than we can treat ours.”

Mount Holly would maintain 2-million gallon storage tanks to handle any kind of overflow that might happen from a heavy downpour that floods the system, Friday said.

Belmont’s nonbinding agreement states that it would pay for a pump station and treatment and operations cost at the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Utilities plant. Charlotte would pay for and construct a pipeline to connect to Charlotte’s Paw Creek station. Specific costs aren’t listed in Belmont’s agreement.

Mount Holly and Belmont would be treated as wastewater customers, said Charlotte-Mecklenburg Utilities Director Barry Gullet.

Both cities would still maintain their sewer systems and do everything they do now except run treatment plants, Gullet said. The cities would pay Charlotte for however many gallons Charlotte treated. Charlotte wouldn’t determine water rates for residents or deal directly with customers.

“It’s not a situation where we’re coming in and taking over their sewer system,” Gullet said.

Building the proposed regional plant won’t happen for at least five years, Gullet said. One of the pipelines will likely be built in the next five years.

“What we’re trying to do is provide for protecting Lake Wylie and provide wastewater treatment for economic development that’s going to take place over the next 50 years,” Gullet said.

Greenerideal.com

If all goes to plan, the city of Charlotte, NC will one day be home to an ambitious environmental initiative called ReVenture Park.

The project could also become a model for innovative redevelopment of industrial brownfields.

The ReVenture Park plan calls for a large renewable energy complex at a 700 acre site along the Catawba River.  Facilities for waste-to-energy, wastewater treatment, solar energy and R&D will rise from the ruins of an old textile dye factory – half a million square feet of industrial space.  read more

CharlotteObserver.com

The developer of Charlotte’s ReVenture Park, which last year scrapped plans for a power plant fueled by Charlotte’s garbage, now intends to build a smaller plant to run on sawdust.

Mecklenburg County has issued an air-quality permit for a 1.5-megawatt combined heat and power plant, the first of its kind in the county, on an industrial site on the Catawba River.

The electricity it generates will be sold to ElectriCities, which serves municipal utilities, developer Tom McKittrick said. The plant will also recycle the heat it generates to dry wood for sale to commercial boiler owners.  Construction will begin in about two months, McKittrick said, with completion expected in early 2013.

“This is a very small project, but it’s an anchor renewable energy project, and a lot of other things can pivot off this,” McKittrick said.

ReVenture Park is intended to be an “eco-industrial park” with a range of projects focused on green energy. It will occupy a 667-acre former Superfund hazardous-waste site in western Mecklenburg partly owned by chemical-dye maker Clariant Corp.

ReVenture’s developer has steadily scaled down the size of the biomass-fueled power plant that would be the park’s first big piece.

A $300 million, 45-megawatt plant that would turn Mecklenburg County’s garbage into energy was proposed in 2010. That was later scaled down to a $160 million, 20-megawatt project that would burn 370,000 tons a year of residential waste.

The project came under fire from neighbors of the county’s Foxhole landfill, which would have served as a backup garbage disposal site for surplus garbage.

Mecklenburg’s solid waste board concluded last year the plan needed review by a private consultant, in part because of conflicts of interest among members of two community advisory panels.

Two months later, McKittrick pulled the plug on the concept, saying he had been unable to find a buyer for the electricity.

The plant he now plans would use similar technology with a different fuel.

Called pyrolysis or “gasification,” it superheats biomass – organic material such as paper or wood – to produce a gas that fuels an engine that drives a generator. The engine exhaust would be captured to dry wood for sale.

McKittrick said sawdust from a wood manufacturer would be the plant’s primary fuel. Wooden crates, pallets and tree trimmings could also be used, the air-quality application says.

The technology is designed to release fewer air emissions and make more efficient use of energy. It would use 40 tons of wood fuel a day, according to the application.

McKittrick expects seven or eight 22-ton trucks a day to wheel into the plant, and about four a day to leave with dried fuel.

Electricity generated from biomass earns renewable-energy credits that help utilities meet state green-energy mandates. In 2010, N.C. legislators agreed to award ReVenture three times the normal number of credits, making it more valuable to buyers.

Mecklenburg County classifies the proposed plant among the smallest air pollution sources it regulates. It’s expected to release about five tons a year of nitrogen oxides, which contribute to the smog that plagues Charlotte, and 10 tons a year of hazardous pollutants.

A leader of a group of riverfront property owners questions why ReVenture didn’t notify the surrounding community of the latest plan. The park’s developers have held frequent public meetings in the past.

“It just appears like somebody is back-dooring somebody,” said Tom Davis of the Catawba River Group. McKittrick “should have called another meeting.”

Davis said he’s worried that, given its scope and frequent changes of plan, ReVenture will balloon to dimensions that hurt the community. “This is just the first step,” he said.

McKittrick said he saw no need to alert the community to the latest plan.

“We have a substantially less controversial project – this is no more than an industrial boiler (air) permit,” he said. “We will certainly look, as this project evolves, to share with the public what we’re doing out there. We have nothing to hide.”

As in most air permit applications, no one asked for a public hearing before Mecklenburg County issued a permit in July. Air-quality director Don Willard said he judged that the size of the plant and its emissions didn’t warrant a special notice to the community.

A barred owl hit by a car in Mecklenburg County in June 2012 was rehabilitated at the Carolina Raptor Center and successfully released back into the wild today at ReVenture Park.

The release took place within the conservation easement protected by the Catawba Lands Conservancy along the banks of the Catawba River at ReVenture Park. The site was chosen because of the favorable conditions that will provide the owl the natural habitat it will need to thrive.

Watch the story as it appeared on WCNC-TV 6pm news.

Join us as a Carolina Raptor Center rehabilitated barred owl is returned to the wild along the banks of the Catawba River within the conservation easement located on ReVenture Park, Charlotte’s first Eco-Industrial Park.

When:  Tuesday, October 16, 2012 at 6pm
Where: ReVenture Park – 11701 Mount Holly Road, Charlotte, NC
Contact: Terri Bennett – 704.953.6570 – terri@ReventurePark.com

The conservation easement within ReVenture Park™ will be the site for the release of a rehabilitated barred owl back into the wild.  The owl was found in Mecklenburg County after being hit by a car and was admitted to the Carolina Raptor Center’s Rehabilitation Center on June 21, 2012.

Now that the owl is once again healthy, it will be released within the 175 acre permanently conserved natural area within ReVenture Park that is protected by the Catawba Lands Conservancy (CLC). This conservation easement also serves as a connector for the Carolina Thread Trail to the U.S. National Whitewater Center. The protected acreage hosts a variety of trees and natural habitat areas while also providing significant watershed protection that helps keep our waterways clean – making it the perfect setting for the release. According the Carolina Raptor Center, this conserved wooded and green space, provides an ideal habitat for the owl to live and thrive. “Providing these natural habitats to help ensure native wildlife populations is an important part of why conservation is so important, especially within our region’s most dense population centers like Mecklenburg County,” said Tom Okel, executive director for CLC.

As the developer for ReVenture Park, Tom McKittrick, President of Forsite Development adds, “We are delighted to be able to provide a thriving environment for the rehabilitated barred owl. Environmental stewardship is at the core of everything we are doing at ReVenture. We have committed to multiple wildlife habitat enhancement projects throughout the park and have received the Wildlife and Industry Together (WAIT) certification by the NC Wildlife Federation.”

The barred owl will be introduced back into the wild after months of rehabilitation and over $1400 in medical costs. You can learn more about the  Carolina Raptor Center or make a donation to help cover rehabilitation costs at CarolinaRaptorCenter.org.

About ReVenture Park™
ReVenture Park is an ambitious plan to transform a 667 acre former Superfund Site along the Catawba River in Charlotte, NC into the region’s largest Eco-Industrial Park. This project will create one of the most dynamic and multi-faceted renewable energy developments currently being developed in the United States. Featuring multiple clean-energy projects, ReVenture Park will advance the Charlotte, NC region’s environmental goals and economic growth by attracting a myriad of renewable energy and alternative fuel projects.

About Catawba Lands Conservancy
Catawba Lands Conservancy (CLC) is dedicated to saving land and connecting lives to nature. CLC protects more than 11,000 acres in Catawba, Gaston, Iredell, Lincoln, and Mecklenburg and Union counties and is one of 24 land trusts serving North Carolina. CLC focuses its efforts in four key areas: clean water, local farms, wildlife habitat and providing public access to nature. Catawba Lands Conservancy is the lead agency for the Carolina Thread Trail, an initiative that would link more than two million citizens with hundreds of miles of trails that connect communities within 15 counties in North and South Carolina. For more information:
www.CatawbaLands.org

About Carolina Raptor Center
Carolina Raptor Center is dedicated to environmental education and the conservation of birds of prey. Our ¾ mile Raptor Trail in Latta Plantation Nature Preserve houses over 25 species of native and exotic raptors including hawks, owls, eagles, kites, falcons and vultures. Our educators teach over 25,000 students a year onsite and in their classrooms. The Jim Arthur Raptor Medical Center treated over 800 injured or orphaned raptors in 2012, with almost 70% released back into the wild. For more information, visit us on the web at www.carolinaraptorcenter.org

In February 2011, the US Department of Energy (DOE) created the Asset Revitalization Initiative (ARI) to focus the Department’s efforts on the beneficial reuse of its assets at former defense nuclear sites, like the Savannah River Site (SRS) located near Aiken, SC. The SRS consists of approximately 310 square mile of federally- owned land, much of which is being made available for private sector investment to implement redevelopment of the site assets.

Through its strategic vision called Enterprise-SRS (E-SRS), SRS envisions these redevelopment projects will include energy-related eco-industrial parks and other similar renewal options.  Helen Belencan, who leads DOE-Savannah River’s ARI efforts, along with other key SRS personnel, will be visiting the Charlotte area in late October.

While here, they will visit several of our regional energy park complexes; meet with academics and regional officials regarding energy and biofuels; and receive briefing on emerging energy technologies being developed and manufactured in our region.  Calor Energy, and the non-profit Energy Park Foundation, are hosting the visit, and are planning the agenda and arrangements for the SRS visitors.

Contact: Justin Sharp at Calor/EPF for details.
Email: justin@calorenergy.com // justin@energyparkfoundation.org.
Office: 704-676-6300, ext 307
Mobile: 803-315-6604

WORKING AGENDA

Wednesday, October 24th, 2012
11:00 am              Westinghouse meeting on SNR in Energy Eco Parks – Pete Harden
2:00 pm                Tour, ReVenture Park, Renewable Energy Eco Industrial Park – Tom McKittrick
5:00 pm                Calor Energy office – Charlotte region renewable energy and biofuels current picture
7:00 pm                Hotel/Operation Dinner Out

Thursday, October 25th, 2012
8:15 am                Arrive at Charlotte Douglas airport – Meet with Jerry Orr and sustainability team, discussion of aviation Biofuels
10:30 am              Tour, Gaston County’s Renewable Energy Eco-Industry Park – Marcie Smith
12:30 pm              Lunch, location TBD
2:00 pm                Tour, Catawba County’s EcoComplex – Barry Edwards
4:30 pm                Discussion with Dr. Johan Enslin, President of UNCC’s EPIC – Energy Production and Infrastructure Center
6:00 pm                Reception at UNCC EPIC

Friday, October 26th, 2012
9:00 am                Calor Energy office for tour recap and background education on advanced pyrolysis system
12:00 pm              Lunch at the Fresh House
1:00 pm                Locust, NC – witness part of 1,000 hour test of new advanced pyrolysis system

BiomassMagazine.com

The largest biomass-based combined-heat-and-power (CHP) facility in France is now operating. Located in southwestern France at papermaker Smurfit Kappa Group LLC’s Biganos-Facture production facility, the 69 MW plant will use 503,000 metric tons (554,463 tons) of tree bark and fines from the pulp screening process to produce electricity and 260 metric tons of steam per hour.

Dalkia, a subsidiary of Veolia Environmental, performed the installation that included replacing the facility’s existing heating plant. The two-year build-out required to erect the 40 meter high biomass boiler will allow the facility to produce high-pressure steam in two turbo alternators that will produce electricity to sell to EDF Energy. The low pressure steam created at the site will be used to dry paper made by Smurfit Kappa.

Feedstock used at the facility will be provided by two sources. Roughly 200,000 metric tons of branches and tree stumps will come from Smurfit Kappa’s Comptoir du Pin logging company. Dalkia will supply another 84,000 metric tons of woody biomass through its own supply chain.

Franck Lacroix, chairman of Dalkia, called the facility rare in size, adding that the it has allowed the company to create a regional biomass supply chain that has created 94 jobs, 24 related to the plant and 70 linked to the supply chain.

In July, Smurfit Kappa also began operating a 21.4 MW cogeneration facility at a paper mill in Nervion, Spain, where pulp waste, woody biomass and black liquor is used to provide steam for the facility.

Waste-Management-World.com

Pompano Beach, Florida based Cyclone Power Technologies (OTCQB: CYPW), the developer of the Cyclone Engine, and waste energy power generator developer, Phoenix Power Group have integrated their technologies to create the Phoenix-10 Waste Oil Co-Generator.

According to Cyclone, the integrated unit utilises Phoenix’s proprietary waste oil combustion chamber/heat exchanger (CCHX) with Cyclone’s Waste Heat Engine, the WHE-25.

The company said that initial steam performance tests were successful, producing approximately half of maximum rated power output – a goal set by the team to provide a benchmark for system optimisation.

The developers claimed that the integrated Phoenix-10 Waste Oil Co-Generator – or P-10 – is a combined heat and power (CHP) system that is capable of utilising used motor oil to produce electricity and reduce both energy and heating requirements for garages, car dealerships and similar facilities.

The Cyclone Engine

The developer describes the operation the external combustion Cyclone Engine as follows (numbers and letters relates to image – click to enlarge):

1. Fuel is atomised and injected into the patented centrifugal combustion chamber, where a spark ignites the fuel-air mixture into a flame that spins around the heat coils.

2. Water contained in the coils becomes super-heated steam of up to 1200 degrees F (650 degrees C)  in as little as 5 seconds from start up which is piped to the cylinders, and enters through a patent-pending valve system with timing mechanisms regulating how much steam enters the cylinders.

Mechanical process

3. Steam enters the six radial-configured cylinders under pressures up to 3200 psi to push the pistons down in sequence.

4. The rotating action of the pistons connected through a patent-pending spider bearing  turns the crank shaft.  Cyclone added that because the greatest amount of torque occurs at the first rotation, the shaft can be directly connected to a drive train without a transmission.

Cooling

5. Steam escapes the cylinders through exhaust ports and (a) enters the patent-pending condensing unit where it turns back into water, and (b) collects in a sealed pan at the bottom of the condenser. The engine is a closed-loop system and water does not need to be replaced or topped-off.

6. Blowers spin fresh air around the condenser to speed the cooling process.

Regenerative process

7. (a) Air which has been pre-heated from the condensing unit, (b) continues up to a second heat exchanger located in the exhaust port of the combustion chamber, further pre-heating the air used for combustion while also cooling the exhaust fumes to about 320 degrees F (160 degrees C).

8.  A high pressure pump (not pictured) pipes water from the collecting pan to the heat coils (a) via heat exchangers surrounding each of the cylinders (only one pictured), and then (b) to the centre of the coils to start the heat cycle again.

On-site waste oil to energy

According to the developer, by utilising the Cyclone WHE-25 external combustion engine, each P-10 system is designed to produce up to 7 kW of grid-tied electricity and off-set the use of fuel oil for space heating requirements by using less expensive waste fuels.

“A beta product launch for next year looks extremely promising,” said Thomas Thillen, Phoenix’s president,

Travis Love, Cyclone WHE project leader, added: “This is an important technological milestone which we believe will allow us to proceed into system optimisation and component hardening on a much more rapid basis”.

We look forward to continuing our work with Phoenix towards the shared goal of getting a quality product to market as soon as possible.’