Enbridge, Veridian come forward with anaerobic digester plans

By Graeme McNaughton/The Oshawa Express

Councillors may not get their eyes on a business case until next month, but potential suitors are already coming forward for a potential anaerobic digester in Durham Region.

Speaking in front of the committee of the whole, representatives from Veridian and Enrbidge, GHD Limited and the Ontario Centres of Excellence gave three different presentations on the possibility of constructing such a facility, potential options for a digester and associated pre-sort facility and potential funding options respectively.

“We think, we bring to the table, a lot of the pieces of this in terms of production and use of the energy. In the case of anaerobic digestion, it’s the production of energy that gets put into the natural gas pipeline,” Michael Angemeer, the president and CEO of Veridian, told councillors.

“The opportunity is this – we take organic waste that is source separated and provided to us, and that goes into an anaerobic digester, which produces biogas. That biogas is then upgraded to pipeline quality so it can be injected into our extensive pipeline network,” added Malini Giridhar, Enbridge’s vice-president of market development and public and government affairs.

“We have over 3,000 kilometres of pipe in Durham Region, and once it’s injected into our pipelines, it can be used for a number of things, including generation of electricity…it can be used to provide heat to homes, and it can be used as fuel for heavy-duty trucking.”

While not shown at the committee of the whole, an extended version of the presentation shown at a meeting of the Energy from Waste – Waste Management Advisory Committee (EFW-WMAC) the week before also included a concept image of such a site, as well as a potential location for a digester.

According to a map included in that presentation, the digester and pre-sort facility would be located near the Durham York Energy Centre, placing much of the region’s waste disposal operations in one place.

While there was information detailing a possible location for such a facility, Susan Siopis, the region’s works commissioner, says that there have been no talks between Enbridge, Veridian and the Region of Durham in regards to an anaerobic digester.

“As staff, we have not been holding meetings with Enbridge at all,” she said, later adding that has been no discussion on “what a partnership might look like.”

Giridhar, however, did say that Enbridge and Veridian are working on a memorandum of understanding between the two for a potential project. However, she did add that some details, such as potential costs or whether waste would come from just Durham or also outside of the region – such is the case with the incinerator – are not known at this point.

Anderson says that the decision of whether to allow green waste from areas outside of Durham would be left up to the region to decide.

Digester and the incinerator’s future

During the presentation from GHD and Ernst and Young, GHD’s Tej Gidda said it was important that the region look at such an option for its compost due to possible changes to provincial legislation surrounding waste disposal, as well as concerns of the incinerator reaching capacity.

“It does look like the ministry is pursuing that approach,” Gidda said in response to a question from Councillor Joe Neal of Clarington, asking whether provincial changes would bar the incinerator from accepting organic waste.

“Other jurisdictions in North America have taken that approach. Most recently, California has banned organic waste from going to landfill, so this could very well be the legislative instrument they utilize here as well.”

Gidda added that because the incinerator is reaching capacity in the near future, something will need to be done either way.

“You’re already at full capacity, so the only way to deal with that and continue down that route is do an expansion of that facility, which obviously comes with its own cost dimensions going forward, and that’s a key driver in what needs to happen.”

At the March EFW-WMAC meeting, Mirka Januszkiewicz, the region’s director of waste management, said that the incinerator would have to be expanded should an anaerobic digester not be approved.

“We will not have any option. We will have to expand the EFW. I am already scrambling, in 2017, because our allotment for the capacity at the EFW, we’ve already exceeded it,” she said at the time.

Januszkiewicz says that the reason the site is already reaching capacity so soon after its opening is because the model used to determine how much waste could be handled at the site was based on a gradual slide to a 70-per-cent diversion rate for the region’s trash, meaning fewer recyclables and compostable items were in garbage bags. However, the region’s diversion rate sits at 55 per cent.

“We have to find room somewhere, and this would mean we would have to expand the energy from waste facility.”

State of the project

Regional Chair Roger Anderson confirmed during the meeting that a business case for the digester, originally set to be released in the spring, will be put before councillors next month.

GHD was contracted by the region in August to help research and develop this business case.

Although a business case has not yet been presented to councillors, regional staff have already put forward their preferred option of paying for the facility. In a report presented to councillors in January, staff suggested that in order to pay for the digester and a pre-sort facility, the region should take out a debenture, or loan, for the full $72 million such a project is expected to cost, and then use the funds the region receives via the federal gas tax fund to pay it off.

This is the same procedure used by the region to pay for the Durham York Energy Centre, the costs of which came in at just under $300 million. The region expects the incinerator will be paid off by 2019.

The possibility of an anaerobic digester has been on the region’s radar since at least 2011, with that year’s regional budget including $50,000 to go towards preliminary design and consultations in its capital forecast for that year.

The 2015 budget included $500,000 to go toward the development of an organics plan and an anaerobic digester, although only $50,000 of that was spent, going towards a review on the associated technology. The next year, there was $400,000 budgeted, which was put towards the upcoming business case.

Regional staff and councillors have also taken part in two trips to Europe to investigate anaerobic digester technology.

In 2015, staff visited sites in Germany, Holland and France at a cost of more than $40,000. The next year, a group of nine representatives from the Region of Durham visited sites in France and Spain. Speaking at regional council, Jim Clapp, the region’s finance commissioner, said the final cost of the trip came to $104,000.

As previously reported in The Oshawa Express, that latter trip included a number of visits to tourist sites, such as the Palace of Versailles outside of Paris and the Sagrada Familia Basilica in Barcelona, as well as a sightseeing cruise in Paris, on days when the contingent was not taking part in regional business.

The region’s finance department approved those expenses.