Taxpayers in municipalities looking for a sustainable
alternative to costly incineration have reason to cheer. The
Environmental Protection Agency recently ruled that sewage sludge
gasification technology patented by MaxWest Environmental Systems
Inc., is not an incinerator, heralding a major victory for clean
air and water. The EPA, in a letter dated Dec. 19, determined that
federal emissions guidelines and compliance rules for sewage sludge
incinerators do not apply to a MaxWest sludge gasifier near
Sanford, Fla.
In its findings, the EPA held that MaxWest's pioneering
technology that breaks down sewage sludge through heating in an
oxygen-starved environment prevents combustion, and thus will not
be regulated as an incinerator. The agency further exempted from
incinerator regulations the second energy-saving step in the
process – a "thermal oxidizer process heater" in
which gases released from thermochemical reactions are scrubbed and
then burned to create heat
