Municipalities face enormous challenges and responsibilities, including protecting their communities’ water supply, disposing of biosolids ethically and sustainably, and balancing a budget to ensure all services can be funded. While governments are neither for-profit nor nonprofit, they must still manage their services and budgets wisely and find unique ways to serve their citizens.
Municipalities typically view biosolid waste management as a necessary expense and seek the lowest-cost provider for its removal. However, with tightened regulations being discussed at federal and state levels, relying solely on the lowest-cost provider may not be sufficient. Instead, we should explore a different approach that focuses on transforming waste into sustainable solutions that reduce emissions, eliminate hazardous chemicals, and potentially generate revenue.
With Stircor’s gasification process, that’s exactly what we’re doing.
We’re at the forefront of reducing carbon emissions and adding revenue to municipal budgets by streamlining processes like biosolid waste management and identifying avenues like carbon capture credits, which can be sold to increase revenue and help other businesses offset carbon emissions.
Begin by Reducing Emissions
At the core of any carbon credit process, the main goal is to incentivize the evolution of dirty, legacy industrial processes into more sustainable, environmentally friendly practices.
Imagine a world where a midsized city can say it is reducing and, in many cases sequestering carbon through its biosolid removal process. Not only will your city be providing a net benefit to citizens – a clean city with efficiently removed biosolid waste – but also another positive of becoming more sustainable by reducing the energy and carbon emissions it takes to remove those biosolids.
Identifying ways to be more sustainable in municipalities through unlikely avenues like waste removal are a win-win for cities and their residents.
Stircor’s gasification process can begin generating carbon credits upon implementation at a municipality’s facility. These credits can be sold in the voluntary carbon market for as much as $150 per credit.
Carbon Crediting Process
At Stircor, we have developed a platform for data collection and project monitoring to ensure that carbon credits generated via gasification meet the highest industry standards.
The carbon crediting process requires intensive documentation, that includes following a carbon methodology, which requires a third-party auditor to verify our process. In other words, the pathway to securing verified carbon credits is strict. However, Stircor has built a team that can and has done this in agriculture and other industries over the last decade.
To ensure that municipalities have the best carbon emission reduction and receive the most possible carbon credits, we work closely with cities on a timeline and protocol to provide ample testing and start-up time before the official start of the crediting period.
Determining Carbon Credits
Take a simple example of 1,000 wet tons of biosolids. If Stircor dries and reduces those 1,000 tons and reduces volume by 90% (the typical amount of reduction), creating 100 tons of Biochar. Carbon credits are determined by varying factors but are typically between multiples of 0.5 – 2.5 tCO2e or credits per ton of approved matter.
If we were then to multiply those 100 tons of Biochar (approved tCO2e) by an average of 1.25, we’d receive 125 carbon credits per 100 tons of Biochar.
Revenue Generated from Carbon Credits
Once the Biochar is processed and analyzed at the laboratory, the results are documented, and our team will work with an independent auditor to verify the credits and the amount secured. While we’re continuing to structure arrangements to ensure this process is mutually beneficial, the average rate for a carbon credit in the current market is $150.
In this simple example of 1000 tons of biosolids, dried to 100 tons of Biochar, multiplied by the carbon credit equivalent of 1.25 to get to 125 total tCO2e, the 100 tons of Biochar would be worth $18,750 and reduce and remove emissions by 125 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent.
The Right Partner for a Thorough Process
As you can see, there are a number of variables involved in reducing emissions and obtaining carbon credits, as well as securing revenue from those credits. From beginning with drying and disposing of biosolids properly to understanding the best way to maximize your tCO2e equivalent to that 1.25+ range to ensure the best price is paid for the credits, a thorough understanding of the process is needed to eventually add to your bottom line from Biosolid waste.
However, the ability to turn a waste product into a way to meet sustainability goals and potentially generate revenue is something that can revolutionize and invigorate municipalities. Whether sustainability is your goal or a community budget is simply stretched too thin, the right kind of biosolid management and carbon crediting process would add endless possibilities to communities of all sizes.
