Program to help companies recycle waste
OLYMPIA – The Washington State Department of Commerce recently announced $850,000 in grants to four projects that support efforts to develop beneficial uses for industrial waste.
The Industrial Symbiosis Program is only in its second year, and funded projects range from research and development to implementation.
“Industrial symbiosis is one tool from a set of forward-looking ideas and applications demonstrating that growth does not have to equal waste,” said Commerce Director Mike Fong in a press release. “Innovation is happening around the world to advance this idea, and we are supporting opportunities to accelerate it here, creating profitable business models and good jobs that protect the environment and strengthen our communities.”
The main goal of the program is to go beyond waste reduction by turning waste into a valued resource.
This will benefit the producer and stimulate new business opportunities and profitability that support the “circular economy” - one that is sustainable, integrated, climate-friendly and profitable.
Qualterra, who recently built a facility near Cheney was awarded $206,857 to turn downstream material from Washington industries into a useful biochar product to bolster crop and soil health.
The study aims to further cultivate mutually beneficial relationships with industries aiming to recycle biomass.
The process will also help growers and farmers seeking to produce crops in a profitable and environmentally sustainable way.
Additionally, the pyrolysis of these industrial waste streams will serve as the basis for generating renewable energy that will power the greenhouse where the biochar trials are conducted.
“We are honored to again be involved with the Industrial Symbiosis Program,” said Mike Werner, Chief Executive Officer, Qualterra Inc. “This award will further accelerate the study of biomass processing to produce biochar, using various agricultural waste streams, for the purpose soil regeneration, crop health/yield improvements and carbon sequestration, as well as the generation of renewable energy which is pivotal to climate health.”
The facility is located on 77 acres near Cheney and includes a 4,700-square-foot research and demonstration building at 29128 S. Wells Road.
The agricultural center is now the home of Qualterra’s biomass processing unit, which takes crop waste materials that would otherwise get burned off or be left to decompose in the soil.
Instead, the facility processes those materials into a refined form of carbon and ash, while also creating renewable energy.
Other grant awards include Washington State University in Pullman, and they received $235,817 to manufacture biochar from waste biomass such as forestry residues and municipal biosolids.
Cascadia Produce in Auburn will get $250,000 to establish a retail rejection hub and distribution center for rescued food.
The grant will also help to develop an online marketplace to serve as a market outlet to an expanded number of organizations with direct access to rescued food.
And the final grant allocation was awarded to Waste Loop in Leavenworth.
$157,326 was awarded to them to further develop the Wenatchee Valley Reuse Innovation Center, a facility dedicated to promoting and facilitating the reuse of materials from construction and agricultural industries.
“This year, Commerce received a wide range of exciting proposals, again highlighting the magnitude of industry-driven involvement in helping to achieve the state’s decarbonization goals,” said Kirk Esmond, Commerce Sustainable Business Development Director. “These beneficial projects showcase how underutilized resources of one company—such as waste, byproducts and materials—can be converted to energy or added-value products. “
Matthew graduated from West Virginia University-Parkersburg in 2011 with a journalism degree. He's an award-winning photographer and enjoys writing stories about people.
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