COMPANY PLANS TO TURN 'GREEN WASTE' INTO USEFUL PRODUCTS PLANT FOR NATURAL GAS, FERTILIZER PROPOSED FOR LANCASTER.

Byline: Jim Skeen Staff Writer

LANCASTER - A Santa Monica company plans to build a $44 million plant to turn lawn clippings and leaves into fertilizer, poultry feed and compressed natural gas to power vehicles, company and city officials announced Monday.

With Terry Tamminen, secretary of the California Environmental Protection Agency on hand, BioConverter Inc. and city officials said the plant will take ``green waste'' that otherwise would have gone into the Lancaster landfill and produce 5,000 gallons of compressed natural gas a day.

``It solves multiple problems with air quality, water quality, landfill diversion and energy,'' Tamminen said. ``We want to see, over the next several years, these types of projects up and down our state.''

The plant is proposed on 18 acres at the northwest corner of Avenue H and Division Street, where a power plant had been proposed in 2001 during California's energy crisis but never built.

In addition to the compressed natural gas, the operation will create fertilizer, an organic liquid plant food, and a protein feed for poultry. The plant will also use the waste to generate its own electricity for its operations.

``This project we are building for Lancaster will become the prototype for similar facilities around the globe and we expect visitors from around the world to come to the city and see it in operations,'' McElvaney said.

BioConverter on Friday got preliminary approval from the Los Angeles City Council on a $16 million annual contract to build a Los Angeles power plant fueled by green waste.

Using methane gas created by the grass and leaves' decomposition, the Los Angeles plant would generate enough electricity to power 40,000 homes.

The Lancaster plant is expected to be able to handle 200 tons of green waste a day, said James McElvaney, the company's senior executive vice president and chief operating officer. The city and its residents and businesses now produce about 75 tons of green waste a day.

Construction is expected to begin this fall and the plant is expected to be operational in 2006. The project will create about 50 construction jobs and 15 to 20 permanent jobs.

The Lancaster plant will receive and process the waste inside enclosed buildings to keep odors from escaping, officials said. The plant will also include a visitor education center to showcase recycling technologies, said project architect Barry Berkus.

The plant will also include a compressed natural gas fueling station available to the public. The city also intends to use the fuel for its vehicles that run on compressed natural gas.

The company will pursue alternative fuel grants available through the Antelope Valley Air Quality Management District, but otherwise will finance the project privately.

Jim Skeen, [phone]

james.skeen(at)dailynews.com

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Photo:

(color) This is an artist's conception of the $44 million ``green waste'' plant proposed by Santa Monica-based BioConverter Inc. for Avenue H and Division Street in Lancaster.