The city of Berryville has been awarded a $745,932 grant from the Department of Energy to support a project exploring new ways to convert waste into fuel. 聽Called Project SMRF, for Sustainable Molecular Recycling Facility, the initiative aims to recover food waste, municipal wastewater sludge, solid waste and manure.
These major contributors to greenhouse gas emissions and environmental pollution are costly to treat, haul and dispose. “The SMRF project is not designed to make electricity,” said Tom Waggoner, managing director of SyntexNRG, a subsidiary of Iowa-based manufacturing firm Syntex Industries.
“It’s designed to convert or transform various waste streams to materials that can be recycled at the molecular level to create sustainable transportations fuels or advanced materials and/or hydrogen.”