Indiana Town Could Get Plant that Makes Ethanol Out of Garbage

The town of Lowell, Ind., is examining whether or not to build a $ 200 million plant that would convert garbage into ethanol.

Though such a plant might conjure up visions of the “Mr. Fusion” unit in Doc Brown’s DeLorean, the plants could create 165 permanent jobs and 400 construction jobs in the small town southwest of Gary.

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Powers Energy One, which last fall won a 20-year garbage disposal contract from Lake County’s waste management authority, is looking at a variety of sites in the town that have the rail and highway access to bring the waste to a plant.

Garbage-to-gas plants are drawing a lot of interest, including from big names like GM, for gas to power homes or fuel for cars and trucks. That’s because such plants may be more efficient at creating fuel than corn-based ethanol production and because they reduce the need for landfill space.

The Lowell plant idea is drawing fire from some local groups because of concerns about pollution from the plants. There’s a public hearing on the idea this week, and no certain timetable for any construction.

Photo credit: D’Arcy Norman on Flickr, via a Creative Commons license

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