St. Paul recycler on track to burn bio-gas
The Rock-Tenn recycling plant in St. Paul could begin burning bio-gas. An advisory group endorsed the plan Monday night.
The bio-gas would be produced in rural Minnesota and fed into the state's existing natural gas pipelines.
Nancy Hone helped organize a group that fought an earlier plan to burn garbage for energy at Rock-Tenn. She said her group will continue to monitor the process, to make sure the bio-gas plant -- wherever it is built -- will be clean.
"We don't want to have our problem out there. We don't want to just shift the problem from here to there; that's not how we think, we think of the planet," Hone said.
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State Senator Ellen Anderson backed legislation that required the St. Paul Port Authority to work with the advisory group. She said the plan is a good one.
"It will keep the Rock-Tenn plant open and save hundreds of good jobs, and it will provide an energy source that's really clean, that everyone in the community can support, I believe," Anderson said.
Bio-gas could be produced at an ethanol or sugar beet plant, or at a large feed lot.
Bacteria would convert the waste materials into methane, which can be further refined to burn as clean as natural gas.
The bio-gas plant would be built using federal loan guarantees.
