Plasco Energy Group out of Ottawa, Ontario, has raised $35 million from major U.S. fund manager First Reserve Corp., bringing the company’s total funding to date up to $90 million. The rest has been supplied by Black River Asset Management, a subsidiary of Cargill, and Hera Holdings SA of Barcelona, Spain.

More impressive, however, is that Plasco — which uses gasification technology to turn municipal solid waste into synthetic gas — has received a commitment from First Reserve for another $115 million in funding next year. This would bring total financing to about $200 million and, needless to say, brings a strong boost of credibility to the company’s technology.

There are many companies out there offering energy-from-waste systems based on gasification and pyrolysis, but few have been able to meet major funding milestones. Plasco also has the benefit of having pilot plants in operation, including most recently a 100-tonne-a-day facility in Ottawa.

The business model is straight forward. Plasco earns money from a tipping fee, but also gets revenue by using the syngas that results from its process to power a Jenbacher engine that produces electricity. In Ontario, that electricity can be sold into the power grid at 11 cents per kilowatt hour.

All eyes will be on Plasco to see whether its Ottawa plant, which after months of controlled tests begins accepting a regular stream of municipal solid waste in January, will live up to promises in terms of low-emission syngas production. Under the gasification process, all the bad stuff is removed using carbon filters and sent to a toxic landfill. Metals are removed using magnets after the initial material has been shredded.

“A tonne of waste will produce clean synthetic fuel gas, which substitutes for natural gas, 300 litres of potable water, 150 kilograms of clean, inert granular material to replace sand in the production of concrete, and small quantities of industrial salt and fertilizer grade sulphur. There are no air emissions released from the conversion process,” according to the company. I imagine that’s because at this stage it’s a closed-loop process.

The company also claims “zero dioxins and furans and non-detectable levels of mercury” from the exhaust of the Jenbacher engines. “The cost to convert waste … will generally be less than the cost to bury that waste in a landfill,” said Plasco chief Rod Bryden.

If — and it’s a big IF — this technology works as promised, I’m a firm believer that it’s the way to go in terms of handling municipal solid waste that can’t be recycled under existing programs. Small gasification plants in communities means fewer diesel trucks on the road hauling garbage to central landfills, it means fewer emissions and less ground leaching from landfills, and it means low-emission electricity from synthetic gas that replaces dirtier forms of electricity on the grid, such as coal.

Some environmentalists I talk with are firmly opposed to this technology, and I can understand why from a certain perspective — i.e. it encourages consumption in society, rather than reduction, reuse and recycling. In other words, any kind of energy-from-waste facility is a big monster with a big mouth to feed, making it okay for people to generate garbage that feeds this monster.

But when it comes down to it — and given that it works as promised, economically, and is independently proven to work — can we ignore it? Is 100 per cent diversion realistic? Can’t policies and rules be put in place that has energy-from-waste systems complementing — rather than competing against — reduction, reused and recycle programs?

I’ve heard horror stories about communities that were suckered into buying energy-from-waste systems that, after millions invested, never worked. Nasty lawsuits followed, yada, yada, yada. Taxpayers were burned, and this left a bad taste in the mouths of many. Plasco is up against this perception, still alive today, that any energy-from-waste system is a scam, or uneconomical, or a disaster waiting to happen.

Plasco, however, is taking the right approach. Starting slowly with small-scale pilots. Proving the technology works. Raising money from the private sector and sharing risk with the communities it sells to. So far it has conducted itself professionally and with caution. When all is said and done, the real comfort test will come later next year when the plant in Ottawa has several months of regular operation and independent testing under its belt.

Then we can all judge.