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Flint tries to find new future in biogas industry

By Shannon Murphy | The Flint Journal
May 18, 2008

FLINT, Michigan -- Tristan Smith of Flint has been looking for a job since October. He's not holding his breath that something will open up in automotive manufacturing.

Apparently, neither is Flint.

Officials think Flint could be turning an economic corner, given last week's announcement that a biogas facility will be built in the city and with the start of construction on one intermodal hub at Bishop Airport and another proposed at the former Buick City facility.

They say the area appears to be moving in the right direction to bring new kinds of business to the region, rather than just relying on the automotive industry.

"It's a critical step in the future of this community to look at things such as alternative energy," said Tim Herman, executive director of the Genesee Regional Chamber of Commerce.

Smith, 21, agrees.

"(General Motors) isn't coming back," Smith said. "We need to get more businesses here and different kinds, even if they are hiring just a few people."

The biogas facility, which is a partnership with Swedish Biogas International, uses waste to create forms of energy.

Herman expects the facility to initially bring about 25-45 jobs, and eventually hundreds.

Peter Unden, chief executive officer of Swedish Biogas, said a small facility will be built on the grounds of the Flint sewage treatment plant, hopefully beginning in the fall. It will have equipment to take waste and "digest" it by decomposing it without oxygen. The process forms biogas.

Unden said the plant will be modeled after a similar one in Linkoping, Sweden, which also is the town's wastewater treatment plant. That facility, which recently expanded to 1,100 employees, produces biogas to fuel vehicles and a small amount of electricity to run the plant.

The Flint plant initially will do the same, although some biogas for electricity may be sold to build up the market.

Unden said he is unsure how many jobs will be created since the company needs to learn more about the skills of current workers at the sewage plant.

But, he said, if the facility is a success, he expects new spin-off businesses that would convert fuel tanks to accept the biogas, as well as local companies and workers that could build and operate additional plants around the nation.

The plant will be the first of its kind in the United States, officials said, although the process has been used on a smaller scale on farms and at other businesses to make energy.

The biogas concept is part of a two-pronged economic development lift for the area.
The other is focused on intermodal hubs, the jargony term for freight shipment facilities. The hubs planned for the Flint area could bring 400-600 jobs each.

The one at Bishop Airport is currently under construction. A second hub at the former Buick City site is in negotiations.

Herman is quick to point out that the three facilities alone can't fix all of the area's economic problems, such as high unemployment, but said it was a start.

"We're no longer going to have (large) plants here," he said. "We're going to have to create jobs 25-50 at a time. They will no longer be in the thousands.

"We're trying to transform this economy one step at a time."

About 40 years ago, automobile manufacturing made up a quarter of all business output in the state, and experts estimate it was probably twice as much in Genesee County.

Now, it's only 7 percent of output in Michigan, said Michigan State University economics professor Charles Ballard.

Ballard said while a biogas facility puts Genesee County in the right direction, there needs to be a variety of industries from health care to information technology to really make a difference.

"I think half the battle for Michigan, but almost all the battle for Genesee County, is grieving," Ballard said.

"It's like a 12-step program. We got addicted to high-wage jobs on a factory assembly line. Now we're dealing with the effects of being addicted to something. We need to deal with the fact that 1957 is never coming back."

Other cities across the nation, such as Pittsburgh, have started to rebuild after losing their main industries. In the 1980s, Pittsburgh went through an economic depression when it lost the steel industry. It has been able to rebuild, although not to the extent it once was, with the help of new industries such as medical research and education.

Kyra Strausmann, real estate director for the Urban Redevelopment Authority of Pittsburgh, cautions that to rebuild, a city must already have a diverse infrastructure in place. When the steel industry made its exit, Pittsburgh already had medical and educational industries, although on a smaller scale.

"The leadership needs to look at where (Flint) is already well-positioned," she said.

That's one reason why the intermodal hubs make sense, according to many officials, capitalizing on the Flint-area's transportation network. Higher education also continues to be one of the area's growth industries, evidenced by the University of Michigan-Flint's planned student housing.

Officials also warn that bringing new businesses to the area alone won't save the region. The community will have to work together to create a skilled workforce, they said.

Takesha Roper, 26, of Flint, has been searching for a job for six months. She said it's hard with just a high school diploma.

"There are so many people looking for jobs," she said. "But you need a degree (for many of them).

"You can't pay for school if you don't have a job and you can't get a job without school."

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Experts cautiously optimistic about plans for Flint biogas plant

By Sally York | The Flint Journal
May 13, 2008

FLINT, Michigan -- It could be years before you will be able to pull into a station and fill your tank with biogas -- a clean and odorless fuel made from human waste.

Start-up costs are high. Vehicles must be converted and gas stations upgraded.

But as oil soars to $120 a barrel and beyond, biogas looks like an attractive alternative source of vehicle fuel.

After all, human waste is free.

Which is one reason energy experts from across the country are cautiously praising a plan to turn Flint's human waste stream into fuel, heat or electricity.

"This is the biggest no-brainer in the history of mankind," said James R. Hiendlmayr, owner of Bio-Gas Technologies in Norwalk, Ohio. "Why waste something you can put to beneficial use?"

Initial costs are a major obstacle and biogas may not ever completely replace fossil fuels, said Nathan Schaffer, manager at PFC Energy, an energy consulting firm based in Washington, D.C.

Still, it's hard not to like the idea.

"This is a way to diversify energy sources and ultimately bring down the price for consumers," Schaffer said.

On Tuesday, Flint officials and Swedish Biogas International announced a joint plan to build a plant to convert waste from the city's wastewater facility into biogas.

Biogas burns 95 percent clean and can cost about 20 percent less than gasoline, said Peter Unden, the CEO of Swedish Biogas.

The fuel can be produced as a liquid or gas, and the company currently is deciding which form would work best in Flint, said Lennart N. Johansson, Detroit's consulate general of Sweden.

Unden told The Flint Journal that Flint would be the first location for the Swedish company, which hopes to build plants nationwide. A contingent from Sweden is in Flint this week to tour the area.

"We can generate clean energy out of waste and create new jobs for Flint," Flint Mayor Don Williamson said.

The project will receive $6 to $10 million in start-up money from the federal and state grants as well as Sweden and private money, said Doug Parks, vice president of the Michigan Economic Development Corporation.

"Once it's proven that it can work here in Flint ... we will have established once again that our region has a vital role in America's economic well-being," said Lt. Gov. John D. Cherry Jr. of Vienna Township.

To start off, biogas would fuel Flint's fleet of municipal vehicles. The partners hope spin-off businesses will grow up around the operation to convert engines and gas tanks on private vehicles to biogas -- and provide a source for new jobs.

"You just change some valves and add a tank that takes higher pressure," Johansson said. "As it grows, you could simply get the oil companies to install a pump for biogas."

But switching from fossil fuel to biogas is not quite so simple, said Mark Cooper, research director at the Consumer Federation of America in Washington, D.C.

"You don't convert a quarter of a billion cars that quickly," he said. "You have to have a whole infrastructure to make this happen. It's fairly daunting to do on a large scale."

John Shears, research coordinator for the Center For Energy Efficiency and Renewable Technologies in Sacramento, Calif., touted Flint's move as helping global warming and improving air quality.

But a money-maker? Shears is not so sure.

"Anything is possible," he said, "but there are problems with the efficiency of production. You have to have enough natural gas cars in the market to justify a station owner putting in a biogas pump.

"In California, local governments are required to buy these types of vehicles for their fleets. They are also available to the public, but what happens when you travel? How can you be sure you will find stations along the way that have the fuel you need?"
Smaller-scale applications have worked well.

In rural communities, outdoor dome-shaped "digesters" that decompose human waste without oxygen provide biogas for single-household cooking and lighting. China alone is estimated to have 8-17 million of these systems.

Buses, taxis, garbage trucks and cars in Sweden run on biogas, making up about 2 percent of the country's fuel emissions, Unden said. There are about 100 biogas fueling stations across Sweden.

A 2007 report estimated that 12,000 vehicles are being fueled with biogas worldwide, with 70,000 biogas-fueled vehicles predicted by 2010. Europe has most of these vehicles.

Why doesn't everyone switch over to biogas?

"The minute we do, OPEC will drop the price of oil," Hiendlmayr said. "They don't want to lose the market. Then you have to start all over again."

Shears said it's a chicken-and-egg situation, with both energy companies and automotive manufacturers afraid to be the one to take the first risk.

Cooper said he believes Americans will eventually eliminate their dependence on oil by adopting several energy alternatives -- solar, ethanol and biogas.

"There is no silver bullet," Cooper said.

Flint Journal staff writer Joe Lawlor contributed to this report.

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Biogas project brings gubernatorial candidates - Mayor Don Williamson and Lieutenant Governor John Cherry - together, although only temporarily

By Joe Lawlor | The Flint Journal
May 14, 2008

FLINT, Michigan -- There they were. Mayor Don Williamson and Lt. Gov. John D. Cherry Jr.

Both potential candidates for governor were at the podium in City Hall Tuesday, both touting a major alternative fuel plant coming to Flint.

They sat on opposite sides of the room. On the surface though, no one would ever guess there was any underlying animosity.

But, the press conference came just a few days after Williamson appeared on this weekends edition of the PBS show "Off the Record" and took the opportunity to slam Cherry, his potential opponent in the 2010 gubernatorial race.

Among other non-niceties, Williamson said Cherry of Vienna Township had never held a real job in his life.

Williamson stood by his comments after the news conference announcing a partnership to bring a biogas plant to Flint, saying he didn't invite Cherry to the news conference, which was arranged by others.

"I tell the truth," said Williamson, who claims the two are not on speaking terms. "I don't have anything to do with (Cherry)."

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City of Flint and Swedish company to turn the city's human waste stream into fuel for vehicles and generating electricity

By Ron Fonger| The Flint Journal
May 13, 2008

FLINT, Michigan -- The city and a Swedish company plan to turn the city's human waste stream into fuel for powering vehicles or generating electricity.

In the process, they say the partnership -- expected to be spelled out in further detail today at a City Hall news conference -- could make Flint a national leader in the biogas industry.

The news comes as other fuel costs soar and worries over fossil fuels linger.

"It's not that Swedes are smarter ... but if you pay $7, $8, $9 a gallon for gas, you get very creative. ... Swedes have learned," said Lennart N. Johansson, consul general for the Consulate General of Sweden in Detroit.

Swedish Biogas International is based in Linkoping, Sweden, a city roughly the size of Flint.

Flint Mayor Don Williamson and Lt. Gov. John D. Cherry Jr. were expected to announce the partnership today.

Williamson was expected to tout the plant as a possible energy source for city vehicles and a source for jobs if it expands and spinoff businesses grow up around the operation.

Details of financing for the plant -- which will cost as much as $10 million initially -- could be worked out during a 60-day period, officials said.

Williamson was expected to say he's agreed to form a "study team that will provide the information we need to proceed by the end of August," said Doug Parks, vice president of new market development for the Michigan Economic Development Corp.

State, federal and grant funds could help pay for the project, as well as money from an international U.S.-Swedish research and development center.

The project has the potential to expand to process biogas from other sources, including landfills, and to produce fertilizer as a moneymaking byproduct, Parks said.

It is still to be determined, officials said, whether Swedish Biogas would become a partial owner or partner in a joint venture here.

The state said in a media advisory that Cherry was expected to announce the "major alternative energy partnership" today at City Hall.

In a draft news release, the governor's office said the project is a result of Gov. Jennifer Granholm's mission to Sweden in August and has the strong support of U.S. Ambassador to Sweden Michael Wood, who grew up in Flint.

State Rep. Lee Gonzalez, D-Flint Township, and U.S. Rep. Dale Kildee, D-Flint, are among those who also have been involved in bringing the project to life, company and state officials said.

The state said the Flint-Sweden project lays the groundwork to create a Michigan Center of Energy Excellence, which would bring together alternative energy companies with a university, where they would conduct research aimed at creating jobs.

Kettering University may be a part of that center in Flint, the draft announcement from the state said.

Granholm announced the Centers of Excellence in her State of the State address this year.

"Doing something in Flint has been a priority for me," Wood, said in a letter to Williamson.

"During my two years in Sweden, I have observed firsthand how cities turn refuse into resources," Wood's letter said. "In Swedish Biogas, the city of Flint has an excellent partner who will help you turn waste from the (wastewater) treatment plant into biogas that can then be used to power vehicles or generate electricity.

"They do it Sweden, and I'm excited that they will now do it in Flint."

For 15 years, Swedish Biogas has been able to convert waste into biomethane for buses, company officials said.

Flint would become the company's first North American venture.

Officials said another company is working with the state of California on similar effort.

"You have a tradition to make cars. ... We can convert engines to run on biogas," Johansson said. "If this works in Flint, it will work in any city with wastewater plants."

Parks said Flint has "an opportunity to do something that's never been done in the United States" with an expert company helping to guide the way.

State officials said Sweden is recognized as a global leader in renewable fuels -- with biomass waste supplying more than 65 percent of the county's heating needs for buildings.

Kettering already has been involved in alternative energy projects, including its vehicle Fuel Cell Center, and Genesee County has been working with a consultant about the potential for capturing methane gas from its sewage treatment plants and converting it to heat and electricity.

The county and city operate separate wastewater plants.

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