A consultant engaged by Monongalia County, West Virginia, has concluded that 2016 and 2017 is not the right time to invest in a new waste-to-energy (WTE) plant to handle the county’s municipal solid waste (MSW).

The report by consultant Downstream Strategies LLC, which is based in Morgantown, West Virginia (Monongalia County's largest city), cited low natural gas and diesel prices as current market conditions working against the investment idea.

Downstream Strategies found that “to be viable in the long term, a syngas facility would need to produce end products that can compete in the marketplace; however, current conditions are challenging. Natural gas is a primary feedstock for the production of ammonia, and the price of natural gas is now very low. Diesel fuel is another potential end use, and the price of diesel fuel is also now very low. The third end use considered, hydrogen, does not have a mature market.”

In a section of the report comparing the various technologies available to the county if and when it does wish to proceed with a WTE project, Downstream points to “conventional gasification” as “the syngas technology that best matches” the county’s needs.

The consultants also write that “Monongalia County alone generates sufficient MSW to fuel a roughly 200 ton-per-day RDF or syngas facility” and that “additional MSW from nearby counties would make even more MSW available.”

A copy of the Downstream Strategies report, co-authored by Evan Hansen, Joseph James and Evan Fedorko, can be found here.