FBRI Team Hired to Study Garbage-to-Energy Technology for Maine Towns, BDN Reports

The Bangor Daily News reported the Municipal Review Committee (MRC), an organization that represents the trash interests of 187 Maine towns, is partnering with the University of Maine to research if new garbage-to-energy technology will work in Maine. The MRC board agreed to hire a team from UMaine’s Forest Bioproducts Research Institute (FBRI) led by Hemant Pendse, a UMaine professor who leads the FBRI research team focused on creating and commercializing new bioproducts. The team will study the operations of Fiberight, a Maryland company, to determine if its “Trashanol” technology that distills municipal solid waste into ethanol, biogas or compressed natural gas will work in Maine, according to the article. The study is expected to start around Nov. 1, and the MRC would like to have a completed report before the annual meeting in January, the article states. WLBZ (Channel 2) also carried a report on the study.