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 Arecibo Resource Recovery Project

Energy Answers International, Inc., through its subsidiary, Energy Answers Arecibo, LLC, is developing a 77 MW Resource Recovery Project to generate renewable energy and recover valuable materials from 2,106 tons per day of Processed Refuse Fuel Fuel™ (PRF) produced from municipal solid waste. The Project will be located in Barrio Cambalache, in the Municipality of Arecibo, Puerto Rico on a “brownfield” site that formerly produced tissue and cardboard from recycled paper. In addition to producing renewable energy, the Project will also recover ferrous and non-ferrous metals and produce construction aggregate, sands and other building materials. It is expected to reduce the volume of materials now going to local unlined landfills by at least 95%.

The Arecibo Resource Recovery Project will:

• Generate energy from renewable and alternative fuels; • Increase Puerto Rico’s recycling rates and capabilities; • Recover valuable materials for commercial reuse; • Reduce landfilling and its associated greenhouse gas emissions; • Redevelop an underutilized, previously impacted industrial “brownfield” site into a productive

reuse; • Employ directly more than 400 people during construction; • Create 150 permanent “green collar” jobs with opportunities for hundreds more; and • Complete all of the above at disposal rates lower than other compliant disposal facilities across

the Island and at energy sales rates below Puerto Rico’s current marginal power production cost.

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By October 2014, most of the island’s landfills could be shuttered, with only the few able to meet federal operating standards expected to remain open, according to an order issued last fall by the Puerto Rico Environmental Quality Board (EQB).  

The order followed years of threats by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to close down Puerto Rico’s municipal trash sites because of shoddy management, substandard design and disappearing storage capability that has made them among the island’s greatest environmental threats, blamed for polluting underground water supplies and the air, and for devouring acres of precious land on this 100‐by‐35‐mile island, acreage that remains unfit for most activity even decades after closure. 

The local Solid Waste Management Authority (SWMA) says that unless something is done, Puerto Rico will run out of space to dispose of its trash by 2018. There are currently 28 landfills on the island, with four in the process of being closed. Most of the remaining landfills are expected to be shuttered over the next three years. 

Meanwhile, Puerto Rico’s recycling rate remains a miserably low 11.31%, despite a law calling for a 35% recycling rate by 2006, six years long past. 

Caribbean Business Review – June 28, 2012 

“Puerto Rico is still 35 miles by 100 miles. It isn’t growing…This waste‐to‐energy plant is part of the solution to handling our solid waste problem, along with increased waste reduction and recycling.” 

Environmental Quality Board President Pedro Nieves Miranda

 

The economic and environmental challenges facing Puerto Rico today present a unique and immediate opportunity to implement a Resource Recovery Project that will provide a major stimulus for sustainable industrial and economic development on a world‐class scale.  This project represents a significant private sector investment that will advance Puerto Rico’s economic recovery and job creation, while improving renewable energy production, fuel diversification, solid waste management infrastructure, greenhouse gas reduction, materials recovery and recycling, and overall quality of life. 

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The Project represents a private sector investment of approximately $600 million in the construction of world class, proven renewable energy and solid waste management infrastructure. Thousands of jobs will be created during the 3-year construction period, plus 150 direct permanent jobs and opportunities for hundreds of additional indirect and induced jobs when the project is in full operation. Resource Recovery Facility Site

The Project site is located on approximately 90 acres in Barrio Cambalache, Municipality of Arecibo where the Global Fibers Paper Mill operated until 1996. The Project will be constructed on approximately 40 acres of the site and will include the waste receiving, waste processing, energy recovery and ash processing operations.

PROJECT SITE

 

Abandoned Cambalache Sugar Mill

PR Power Authority Power

Plant

Abandoned Global Fibers

Paper Mill

Battery Recycling Operation

ARECIBO, PR

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The Technology

The technology to be employed at the Project represents the next generation of Energy Answers’ Processed Refuse Fuel (PRF) technology, developed by Energy Answers to maximize the recovery of renewable energy and marketable materials from municipal solid waste (MSW).

  Waste Receiving and Fuel Production The Project will utilize PRF derived from the post-consumer recycling MSW stream as its primary fuel source. During PRF production certain materials will be extracted from the waste (ferrous metals and other marketable materials) and the remainder will be shred into small particle sizes for efficient combustion. All operations will take place indoors where dust and odor will be virtually eliminated. A major advantage of shredding waste is that the shredding process substantially reduces the smell of raw waste and instead produces material with an odor similar to damp leaves. In addition, vermin are not attracted to the shredded material and the fuel produced can be combusted in suspension efficiently. Power Production Energy Answers’ patented power generation technology involves a semi-suspension combustion boiler instead of the more traditional mass-burn combustion boiler. As with other solid fuels, it is recognized that by reducing the fuel particulate size (i.e., pulverized coal, sawdust, etc.), the combustion efficiency is increased and ash residue is decreased. Before the waste is fed into the boiler, it is shredded into small

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particles, thereby increasing the available surface area for combustion and increasing energy generation and efficiency.

COMBUSTION GASES

FLY ASH

BOTTOM ASH

STEAM

Mass Burn Incineration Combustion System

WATER QUENCH

Processed Refuse Fuel Boiler

DRY BOTTOM ASH TOASH PROCESSING FACILTY

UNDERFIRE AIR

HEAVY COMBUSTIBLES& NON-COMBUSTIBLES

OVERFIRE AIR

PRF

COMBUSTION GASES TOAIR QUALITYCONTROL SYSTEM

LIGHTCOMBUSTIBLES

SUSPENSION COMBUSTION ZONE

STEAM TOTURBINE GENERATOR

FLY ASHCONDITIONING

FLY ASH

Emissions Control Energy Answers will treat, capture, monitor and control regulated air pollutants in the combustion flue gases before venting to the atmosphere. This will be achieved using an air quality control system that employs state-of-the-art technologies for removing particulate matter, acid gases, nitrogen oxides, mercury and other regulated air pollutants. The air quality control system is guaranteed by the vendor to meet or exceed the applicable air quality regulatory emission limits. The Energy Answers Arecibo facility will have the lowest emissions of any facility in the United States - EPA Region 2, May 23, 2012 Public Availability Secession.

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Residuals Management Energy Answers' philosophy is to treat ash as a raw material for commercial products, not as a waste material requiring disposal. Its PRF technology is designed for complete organics burnout and control of temperature on the grate to prevent the melting of glass and most metals. The objective with regard to the bottom ash is to create a dry, gravel-like material from which all materials can be recovered for reuse. The bottom ash is processed with a proprietary technology developed by Energy Answers which recovers ferrous and non-ferrous metals and produces Boiler Aggregate™, a material which has been used for road pavement and in the production of concrete products. A separate and independent processing system will be used to condition the fly ash for potential reuse. Materials Recovered from the PRF System The reference facility for the Arecibo Project is the SEMASS Resource Recovery Facility which has been in successful commercial operation since 1989, serving more than 50 communities in southeastern Massachusetts and Cape Cod. The Energy Answers PRF technology is a proven and award-winning Resource Recovery system which approaches total recovery and zero-disposal. The Arecibo Resource Recovery Facility will incorporate several key enhancements developed during two decades of operating success at SEMASS.

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Summary of Arecibo Resource Recovery -- Inputs and Outputs

Electric Capacity (Gross MW) 77 MW Electric Capacity (Net MW) 68 MW Low Pressure Steam for Industrial Tenants (lbs/hr) 200,000 Fuel Heat Content (Btu/lb) 5,700 Fuel – Processed Refuse Fuel (Tons/Day) 2,106 Average Annual Generation – 30 years (MWh) 674,520 Full Time Jobs Generated * (direct, indirect, and induced) 700

Construction Jobs Generated* (direct, indirect, and induced) 4,000

Construction Start Date December 2012 Commercial Operation Date December 2015

*These numbers reflect the direct jobs at the Project, the indirect jobs which are created as a result of the Project’s requirements for goods and services from outside suppliers, contractors and vendors and the induced jobs created through the overall increase in economic activity within the region. They are based on a study prepared by Estudios Técnicos.

The Ecological Society of America awarded its 1996 Corporate Award for Resource Recycling to SEMASS, recognizing its “record of remarkable reduction of waste flow combined with environmental concern, done profitably and on a large regional scale.” 

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For more information, contact: Energy Answers International, Inc.

79 N. Pearl Street Albany, New York 12207

ph: 518-434-1227 fx: 518-436-6343 www.energyanswers.com

Puerto Rico Project Office: Atrium Business Center, Suite 229, 530 Constitution Avenue, San Juan, Puerto Rico 00901-2304

Phone: 787-202-6212

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