New company plans to turn garbage into fuel

A California company wants to turn household garbage into ethanol, and they want to do it in Storey County.

Fulcrum Bioenergy Inc., of Pleasanton, Calif., seeks to build a new municipal solid waste-to-ethanol plant at the Tahoe Reno Industrial Center in Storey County.

The plant is expected to process 90,000 tons per year of municipal solid waste into 10.5 million gallons of ethanol per year, and would cost $120 million.

According to the company's Web site, construction of the plant, called Sierra BioFuels, is to begin in the fourth quarter of 2008 in TRIC.

The site said the company already has the necessary state and local permits to begin preparation on the 11.3-acre site in the industrial park, and expects the plant to be completed by mid-2010.

"This will be the first of its kind in the country," said Rick Barraza, vice president of administration for the company.

He said the plant will turn municipal solid waste like household garbage, construction or demolition waste and cars from scrapyards into ethanol. "Anything that has carbon or organic matter, we will be using in the future."

A company press release said the plant will be one of the first commercial-scale production facilities for converting municipal solid waste to ethanol.

Company officials will present their plans to the Storey County Commission at today's meeting and ask the commissioners to pass a reimbursement resolution that Fulcrum CFO Eric Pryor said would allow the company to file for tax-exempt financing.

"The reimbursement resolution is just a procedural placeholder that is filed to qualify for tax-exempt financing, but is no obligation for the county or anyone to do a tax-exempt financing," he said.

Pryor said if the commission approves the resolution the company, which is a new business, starting its first plant, will evaluate tax-exempt financing.

Contact reporter Karen Woodmansee at kwoodmansee@nevadaappeal.com or call 881-7351.