Pendse Quoted in BDN Article on Proposed Hampden Waste Handling Facility
The Bangor Daily News reported the Municipal Review Committee (MRC) voted unanimously to enter a development agreement with Maryland-based company Fiberight that wants to build a solid waste processing facility in Hampden that will turn trash into biofuel. The MRC hired a team of students 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 was tasked with studying Fiberight’s operations to determine if its technology will work in the colder temperatures of Maine. Pendse, who spoke about the study’s results, said he and other team members have experience with concepts similar to that being advanced by Fiberight, many of them from Maine’s pulp and paper industry. In addition to a visit to Fiberight’s Virginia plant, the team worked with consultants, he said. “So to give you the upshot, our analysis of the Fiberight technology and their operating experiences is that the technology is sound and it’s ready to be deployed in Maine,” Pendse said. The Free Press also published a report about the proposed facility and study.