Our target market is the approximately 3,000 urban communities with populations over 50,000 that dispose more than 90% of all municipal sewage and waste in the US. The major market drivers are as follows:
Waste Disposal
Combined municipal sewage and solid waste disposal in US landfills is about 190 million tons per year. The income potential for disposal of sewage and solid waste in this market based on a $70 per ton tipping fee is $13 billion.
Energy Products: Electric Power and Transportation Fuel
Producing carbon-neutral liquid fuels in urban communities is the best solution for urban sustainability. The most expensive and critical energy purchased by communities is lquid fuel. Having a locally reliable souce of liquid fuel enable elelctric power to be generated by local power plants. However, without liquid fuels, transportation on which sustainability is based ceases. With respect to generating greenhouse gas, producing carbon-neutral transportation fuel is no different than a solar or wind power plant.
The counterpart of a base load power plant from which most of our electric power is generated is a distributed generation power plant. Many state's have Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) regulations that now require utilities to increase the renewable electricity they deliver to their customers by 10% and 20%. Although the primary value of the VGCS is production of transportation fuels for vehicles, the VGCS can generate local power efficiently using fuel cells running on syngas. In emergencies, the VGCS can also provide carbon-neutral liquid fuels for running distributed generation power plants around the clock.
Enough carbon-neutral syndiesel could be made from US disposed MSW and sewage sludge to operate all US trash trucks. Income from the sale of carbon-neutral and zero-particulate emissios liquid fuel to operate trash trucks based on an equivalent market price of $1.50/gal for diesel plus the current $1.00 per gallon tax credit is $11 billion.
Biochar and Carbon Credits
Biochar is an important VGCS products. Biochar sales based on 45 million tons of biochar sold at $200 per ton could be $9 billion.
Producing biochar is now being considered one of the best solutions for removing CO2 from the atmosphere. The American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 (ACES) has included two billion MT of CO2 carbon credits per year. The bill also establishes a floor and ceiling price for carbon credits between $10 and $30 per ton. Assuming the VGCS proudction of biochar qualifies for carbon credits at $15 per MT of CO2, the income per year wouild be $2.2 billion.
