Sustainable Businesses
RtThe
Projects at the Rutgers University
EcoComplex include a landfill gas-powered
greenhouse y an aquaponics system
and various educational and
commercial enterprises.
Cindy Rovins
T
HE RUTGERS UNIVER-
SITY EcoComplex — a re-
search facility of the New
Jersey Agricultural Experi-
ment Station — is located at
rhe RurlinKton County Re-
source Recovery Center where
a greenhouse heated and pow-
ered hy landfill gas is operated.
The EcoComplex serves as a
sustainable husiness incuhator,
with innovative businesses and non-
profit organizations conducting re-
search in hoth the greenhouse and the
EcoComplex huilding. In Business
first covered the EcoCt>mplex in the
March/April 2005 issue ("Incuhating
Eirms At An Ecocomplex). This up-
date will highlight new initiatives he-
ing undertaken, as well as develop-
ments at the incuhator.
The greenhouse is home to an
aquaponics system that grows hydro-
ponie vegetables and herbs fertilized
hy water from tanks raising tilapia. Re-
search on this system continues, look-
ing at ways to maximize efficiency.
The 46,000 square foot greenhouse
has plenty of room for new businesses
that have taken up residence. A com-
pany from Israel, Organi-Tecb, is test-
ing an automated hydroponic lettuce
productit>n system and looking to en-
ter the lettuce market in New York and
Philadelphia.
Four Seasons is an orchid growing
18 IN BUSINESS
Through Oceans of Knowledge's
distance learning program, school
children have an opportunity to work
on the aquaponics system in the
greenhouse. Twice a year, students
travel to the EcoComplex for hands-
on experience (above).
company hased in Taiwan, literally
testing the climate for potted orchid
production in the Northeast U.S.
Dave Specca, EcoComplex Director,
sees the benefit ot these companies ul-
timately locating their facilities in the
region and working with kical green-
house grt)wers to produce the crops.
"We're interested in getting them to
locate right along the edge of the land-
fill where they could utilize the waste
heat from the county's cogeneration
(c<.>gen) system," says Specca, "They'd
have to put up their own greenhouse,
but they ccxild do that with the confi-
dence of knowing that we've already
demonstrated that it can be done on a
small scale in our greenhouse."
As a side note, in order to site pri-
vate operations at county or municipal
facilities that were hought with tax-
free municipal bonds —- which
have restrictions on the amount
of private activity that can oc-
cur — Burlington County had
to refinance some of its prtiject
costs with taxahle honds and
pay off other bonds.
Another new occupant in the
greenhouse is Elam Botanical
Research, Inc., which is explor-
ing hydrtiponically growing
medicinal herbs for nutraceuti-
cal use.
The last addition to the
greenhouse is the nonprofit
Ocean of Know organization,
running its Young McL>)nald's Farm
distance learning program. Using a
small model of the EcoComplex's
aquaponics system, they teach math
and science to inner city school chil-
dren in New York City and other loca-
tions. Under the premise that students
learn much quicker when the math
and science are applied, the project in-
volves video-conferencing that allows
the students to tie into the greenhouse
over the Internet and interact live
with a technician who walks them
through the project.
The project, however, is not just a
guided tour. Student teams are given
the responsibility of calculating the
correct feeding, monitoring water
quality (disscilved solids, oxygen, pH,
etc.), keeping records of findings, mak-
ing changes in the care routine hased
on their findings, and reporting the
findings. Based on their calculations,
students remotely instruct a rohot
(built and prtigrammed hy the stu-
MAY/JUNE 2006

dents) to feed the fish. The classes in-
volved in the project also make two
field trips to the greenhouse where
they get to plant and then harvest
their crops. {Eor more information
about Ocean of Know, go to:
http://www.oceanofk.org.)
ESTABLISHED INCUBATOR COMPANIES
Acrion Techntdowries, Inc.
Since tbe completion of the pilot
project running two trash trucks on
landfill gas cleaned up hy Acrion's
NORTH AMERICAN BIOFUELS UPDATE
O
RIGINALLY SLATED for the incu-
bator at the EcoComplex,
North American Biofuels Com-
pany, Inc. (NABEC) has insteod ac-
celerated its schedule for building
new plants due to the dynamics of
the price of oil in the marketplace
and the demand for alternative fuels.
"Rather than invest the time in incu-
bation, the plant sites will serve as
demonstration sites as the technol-
ogy matures," says Alan Elienbogen
of NABFC.
NABFC has a chemically driven
process that produces biodiesel from
grease trap waste. The process has
been validated by a third-party en-
gineering firm that certified more
than a dczen of its batches. An inde-
pendent evaluation also was per-
formed on its process by Shaw Engi-
neering. This certification is the first
step in NABEC's plans for establishing
large-scale plants at two Iccotions in
New Jersey. "We are in discussions
and negotiations with several waste-
water treatment plants (WWTP),
since getting rid of the wastewater
(grey water) during the initial dewa-
tering is much more convenient at a
WWTP," says Ellenbogen. "Also, this
IN BUSINESS
ncubator
The greenhouse, which is heated
and powered by landfill gas, is home
to an aquaponics system that grows
hydroponic vegetables and herbs
(above left) fertilized by water from
tanks raising tilapia (above right).
landfill gas (LFG) clean-iLp system,
Acrion's technology is being imple-
mented in the first commercial sized
facility. Firm Green''' Energy, Inc. of
Newport Beach, California, has li-
provides revenue in the form of tip-
ping fees to the plant, and yet there
is no danger of waste grease getting
into the system since we take it,"
Under consideration in their discus-
sions with the regional WWTP's is
keeping the biodiese! within the re-
gion to satisfy the need for munici-
palities to have green energy for their
fleet vehicles.
Along with the progress in New Jer-
sey, its pilot plant in Bohemia, New
York on Long Island, located at the
Russell Reid faciiity, is going through
various upgrades. A large front-end
system that wiil process all the brown
grease coming in is being installed,
They found that their initial process re-
moved 70 percent of the water, but
another 15 to 20 percent of the wa-
ter was trapped in the grease layer.
Says NABFC's CEO David Butler, "We
would start the chemical process
and the water would separate out
and kill the process. So we had to
learn to reprocess the trap grease to
take that water out," The new front
end, which takes up half the size of a
Sea-Land container, will effectively
remove all the water, debris and sur-
facfants from the trap grease.
censed the LFG clean-up technology.
The Solid Waste Authority of Central
Ohio (SWACO) is developing a
Green Energy Center where it will sell
its LFG to Firm Green Fuels (an LLG
of Firm Green Energy), who will clean
the gas through the Acrion process,
and use it tor fuel cells and/or micrt)-
turhines to produce electricity for
hoth Firm Green Fuels and SWACO's
facilities.
SWACO also will utilize Acrion's
process to produce methanol and food
The company is experimenting
with a variety of different types of
products such as fish oil, grease trap
waste, vitamin manufacturing waste
and "white grease" from donut man-
ufacturing. The final product is an ag-
gregate, "When taking multiple
feedstocks, we're very careful that
our final output is a blend of multiple
sources," says Butler, "So nobody will
get a trucklcad of biodiesel trom
donut fat. They'll get it from a little
soy, a little Chinese restaurant waste,
a little beef lard, etc." This is accom-
plished through common raii mani-
folds running across the wail which al-
low them to take different source
tanks and blend them together into
a finai tank, "All ot our biodiesel is
consistent when it goes out because
we control the input teedstocks,"
says Butler, "We control all our vent-
ing; there are no air or water emis-
sions — nothing goes out that is not a
sellable product,"
The Long Island pilot plant currently
is capable ot producing 3,000 gal-
lons/day of biodiese!. When the new
front-end installation is complete, pi-
lot production capacity will increase
to 12,000 to 15,000 gallons/day,
MAY/JUNE 2006 19

grade carbon dioxide. Accord-
ing to Rill Brown, Acrion's co-
tounder, "What will allow the
LFG to be used in making
methanol is to clean it up to
very strict standards. What we
don't want to do is poison the
catalysts needed to convert the
methane and COj into
methanol. For methanol syn-
thesis it is the chlorine and sul-
fur-containing contaminants
that poison the catalysts. Our process
produces a very clean mixture of
methane and COj which is then used
as a feedstock to synthesize methant>l
in a catalytic process."
Adds Brown: "We've licensed the
technology to Mack Truck for the
manufacturing of liquefied natural
gas (LNG) from LFG and all other
applications have been licensed to
Firm Green."
TerraCycle
TerraCycle produces a liquid plant
food from vermicompost, packaged in
reused soda bottles. Its research opera- olet plant food and an orchid plant
tion takes place at the EcoComplex food, it continues to obtain used soda
greenhouse, while processing and bottle containers through school col-
packaging are done in a facility in lection programs. In the quest for
The 46,000 square foot
greenhouse has plenty of
room for new businesses,
including a hydroponic
iettuce producer and an
orchid growing company.
20 IN BUSINESS
Trenton, New Jersey. They arc con-
verting another hiiildin^ in Trenton to
use as a vermicomposting taciUty.
It seems that vermicompost is as
good for growing a business as it is for
growing plants. Since early 2004, Ter-
taCycie Plant Food has sold for about
$7 in natural foods sti>res and inde-
pendent garden shops, and became
available in Wai-Marts across Canada
and on-line at Home Depot. Sales in
2005 reached $500,000, and are antic-
ipated to triple this year with a
The Acrion technology that converts
landfill gas into liquefied natural gas
(fueling station at top of page) was
pilot tested at the EcoComplex
incubator. TerraCycle, wtiicti makes
liquid fertilizer from vermicompost,
has a researcti-scale composting
unit (above) inside the greenhouse.
planned launch in Home Depot stores
and U.S. Wai-Marts.
Terracycle has expanded its line to
10 products, including an African vi-
making its packaging com-
pletely environmentally
friendly, the company was
looking at producing labels
from corn-based polymers.
Instead, it is looking to go
with a label made from PET,
which would make the pack-
aging entirely recyclable.
Garden State Ethanol
Garden State Ethanol, Inc.
may be the first ethanol plant
on the East Coast, and is in-
tended to be built as an EcoAgribusi-
ness Park with aquaculture, a flash
freeze process and greenhouse produc-
tion using cooperative energy and in-
frastructure utilization. After being
outbid on the original property se-
lected. Garden State Ethanol has
identified two brownfield sites that
meet its requirements for access to
major roadways, rail and a water sup-
ply. While the final site is to be deter-
mined, funding for the project has
been secured. New Jersey State Sena-
tor (now Governor) Ctirzine got a $1
million grant to assist Garden State
Ethanol in the construction costs for
the facility.
The overall outlook for ethanol
looks promising as well, with federal
calls for more ethanol production.
New Jersey will be putting into effect a
ban on MTBE in January 2008, so a
million gallons a day of an MTBE al-
ternative will be needed. According to
Project Director Hank Capro, "the vi-
able commercial alternative at this
stage of the game is ethanol." Capro
also notes that E85 is a potential fuel
for consumers. "Ford, GM and Volk-
swagen all have millions of E85 vehi-
cles on the market -— they're heavily
utilized in the Midwest," he says.
As Garden State Ethanol gets closer
to the realities of production, it will
determine whether to go with its orig-
inal plan of selling the by-product dry
distiller's grains as animal feed or, de-
pendingon the price of natural gas, use
them along with waste wood as fuel in
a tluidized bed gasifier to generate
steam and electricity.
HydroGlohe
HydroGlobe develops and produces
adsorptive materials for removal of
beavy metals and arsenic from drink-
ing and process water. Since graduat-
ing from the EcoComplex and being
acquired by Graver Tecbnologies, the
company has invested significantly in
the technology through testing and
improvements in the past year.
The groundwork fot the product de-
velopment and marketing has been in
anticipation of EPA's arsenic standard
for drinking water wbich went into ef-
fect January 23, 2006. The new stan-
dard for arsenic is 10 parts per billion
to protect ct)nsumers served hy public
water systems from the effects of long-
term, chronic exposure. D
Cindy Ravins is an Af^iculiural and Envi-
ronmental Communications Editor for Rut'
gers Cooperative Research & Extension.
MAV/JUNE 2006