In preparation of the opening of the world’s largest waste-to-energy (WTE) downdraft gasification plant in Lebanon, Tenn., next month, the mayors of Tennessee gave a preview tour of the site to legislative counterparts from nearby municipal and county governments.

"This facility is going to be a model for public/private partnerships to cleanly dispose of waste and produce green energy," Mayor Philip Craighead of the City of Lebanon said in a press release.  "The next stage will be utilizing this technology to solve our ongoing municipal garbage situation, and give us all a much more sustainable and cleaner option than dumping waste into landfills."

The WTE plant was designed, installed and constructed by PHG Energy of Nashville and can combine scrap tires, commercial wood waste and biosolids from the wastewater treatment plant as feedstock with a 64 tons per day throughput capacity, produce sufficient electricity to power approximately 350 homes annually and keep 2,500 tons of carbon emissions out of the air each year. Additionally, the outputs of the system include fuel gas for power production and a high carbon biochar.