One mill’s trash may be Katahdin area’s treasure Biomass-to-hydrogen idea aired in Millinocket

MILLINOCKET – Sludge from the town’s now-dormant paper mill may have the potential to produce clean, efficient energy that could relieve local, and possibly state, dependence on fossil fuels, according to experts.

A Boston consulting company has identified the waste sludge the facility is capable of producing as a possible resource for a conversion process that breaks down decaying matter into the primary usable resource of hydrogen as well as carbon and methane.

From powering cars to heating homes to creating electricity, the versatility of hydrogen has gone virtually untapped until now, according to paper industry consultant Thomas Schinkel, who was at the Katahdin Paper Engineering and Research facility Friday afternoon to pitch the idea.

At the meeting of more than 20 state and local officials, Schinkel proposed the concept of an eventual biomass-to-hydrogen conversion project to be initiated in the town by a consortium of businesses, tentatively known as Maine New Energy. Five or six years down the road, a potential 10-megawatt electricity plant could come on line at a cost of between $10 million and $50 million, he said. The hope is that corporate players and state entities could come to the table to financially support the project at that stage, he said.

The endeavor has the potential to provide cheap electricity and solve the mill’s waste problem without pollution, Schinkel said. When it operated, the mill produced roughly 100 tons of sludge a day, he said.

John Cullen, a Boston lawyer who often works with Schinkel, said the project has the potential to prevent a future crisis with the mill, which has six years before its landfill reaches capacity.

“There is a crisis and it is severe,” Cullen said. “It isn’t something you can talk about for another year.”

Producing hydrogen locally also has the potential to relieve the community’s need for fossil fuels from overseas for heating and other uses, Schinkel said. That effect has the power to ripple into other communities, he said.

“There’s a good possibility that when we embrace it, we don’t know where it will take us in 10, 20 or 30 years. But it may liberate us,” Schinkel said.

The Katahdin region is not unique in the difficulty it is facing from having a narrow economic base, Schinkel said. Similar to Maine in size, Iceland has relied heavily on commercial fishing and tourism to support the national economy, Schinkel said.

But in recent years, the country has been working to harness the island’s natural resource of hot-water springs to make hydrogen, Schinkel said. With hydrogen already powering some public buses, the country is working on applying the technology to passenger vehicles and commercial fishing vessels, he said.

Multinational corporations and the national government have formed a consortium with the eventual goal of eliminating Iceland’s need for fossil fuels, Schinkel said.

“It’s not an easy road to get there, but they’ve taken the first steps,” Schinkel said.

Here in the United States, the American Hydrogen Association currently maintains four hydrogen-powered vehicles and similar initiatives have occurred in California, he said.

The first step to implementing the initiative would be to identify $500,000 to $700,000 in funding at the state and federal levels for a three- to six-month feasibility study to determine the marketability of hydrogen power, Schinkel said. Additionally, a group of scientists, technicians and engineers would need to be assembled to identify existing waste streams and answer some of the operational questions for such a project, he said.

The concept is still in the exploratory stage and many questions are yet to be answered, Schinkel said.

“I’m not saying all the answers will be positive,” Schinkel said. “It’s also premature to say this [endeavor] will create 5,000 new jobs in two years.”

Jonathan Daniels, director of the Eastern Maine Development Corp., said he had seen Iceland’s energy advancements firsthand on trade missions to the country. In discussions with local officials, he learned that single sources of hydrogen energy were being recycled through businesses, greenhouses and homes. He also found that residents received both electricity and heating by way of hydrogen for a total cost of $500 a year.

“You can imagine what we would be able to do if we could drop to that level,” Daniels said.

The potential for the biomass conversion process is “exciting,” according to Thaxter Trafton, director of the state’s office of business development, who attended the meeting. Trafton said people in the state would get behind this and described the project as “doable.”

“Innovative solutions like this are the answer,” Trafton said. “It’s not pie in the sky; it’s a dream that can happen.”