Signs that Waste Management controls the waste energy of non-profit Green Knights Economic Development Corporation

Who owns the waste heat going up Green Knights' stacks?

On April 5, 2017, a dog and pony show was held at the Plainfield Township Fire Company Banquet Hall, and representatives of Synagro took questions from the audience.  However, neither Waste Management nor Green Knight were on the panel that answered questions.

After the meeting, Green Knights President Carlton Snyder informally addressed some questions by audience members.  He stated:

• This was not our idea - we were approached by either Synagro or Waste Management
• We looked at three criteria in choosing this project, one of which was contractual obligations

Synagro was asked how they got involved, and they stated that they were approached by Waste Management.  Together with Mr. Snyder's statement, the project was envisioned by Waste Management, who likely discussed it with DEP, and then approached Synagro.  Green Knights was brought in at the end.  It is logical that if it was Waste Management's idea, the potential of making insignificant income was present.

In 2018, it was learned from Green Knights' treasurer Peter Albanese that Green Knights will receive up to $100,000 a year by selling the waste heat used by Synagro.  The assumption that Green Knight is selling its waste energy to Synagro appears to be false; Synagro's project manager Jim Hecht has stated that Green Knights has "an arrangement with Waste Management" for remuneration for its waste heat (July 2019).

On August 9, Mr. Hecht was asked whom Synagro is paying for its waste heat, and he stuttered "It's c... complicated," implying that Waste Management is involved.

Why would this be?  Green Knights is a non-profit and should be an independent organization.  It converts the landfill gas it receives to electricity and in the process waste heat is generated and sent up the stacks of its generators.

We found earlier that Waste Management and Synagro could both earn millions of dollars a year off of this project, while Green Knights sucks out $100,000 maximum of exhaust fumes.  This analysis assumed that Waste Management would makes its income from a lease fee for its property - it could charge virtually any price it chooses.  The assumption this is Waste Managements' only source of income from Synagro appears to be incorrect.

It is a very simple matter to estimate what the worth of Green Knights' waste heat is to Synagro, to replace the heat from burning natural gas.  Krüger is a manufacturer of a belt dryer for biosolids, which performs the same function as the one Synagro proposes.  Krüger has published a chart that shows the energy needed to reduce biosolids of various water content to 90% dry - the same as proposed.  This analysis is at the link above, and repeated here:

Synagro has stated that the water content of its biosolids is 21% - the highlighted row.  Looking at that row, 9523.6 pounds of wet biosolids requires 11003492 BTU of energy.  There are 1000 BTU per cu ft of natural gas, so it will take 11003.5 cu ft to dry 9523.8 pounds of "cake"- Synagro's class B raw product.  This is 4.76 tons of product.

In August 2018, natural gas in PA was an average of $9.38 per thousand cu ft, so the cost to dry this amount of product is $9.38 * 11003.5/1000 = $103.21.  To obtain the cost per ton to dry wet cake, we calculate $103.21/4.76 = $21.67.

Synagro will process 400 tons a day maximum, and using 100% natural gas we obtain 400 * 21.67 = $8670 per day as the cost of fuel.  Per year, this is $3,164,422.

Synagro has stated that Green Knights can not provide more than 84% of its energy needs (showing the project isn't as green as suggested), and that they plan to run on 84% waste energy and 16% natural gas.  The 84% of heat energy that is supplied by Green Knight is equivalent to 0.84 * 3,164,422, or $2,658,114 worth of natural gas per per year.

This must be where Waste Management sticks its greedy hand in the pot and makes a heck of a lot of money.  Green Knight is receiving $100,000 per year, saving Synagro $2,558.114.  Mr. Hecht has implied that Green Knight will receive its $100,000 from Waste Management, not Synagro.  This begs the question, how much per year will Waste Management receive from Synagro, for Green Knights' waste heat?  It would obviously be far better for the community, and more like the "economic development" touted, if Green Knight were receiving say, 50 cents on the dollar, or roughly $1.6 million per year.

Another question is, is there some "contractual obligation" of Green Knights in Mr. Snyder's words, in which they don't control or have ownership of their own waste heat?  It certainly seems like they have little or no independence from Waste Management.