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Alternative to dealing with growing pile of Marpi trash
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Posted on Feb 25 2020
A waste energy company gave a presentation Friday at the House of the Representatives on gasification technology as an alternative way of dealing with the growing pile of trash at the Marpi landfill.
Norman Tenorio of Joeten Enterprises, which is a local partner of Wisconsin-based Alliance Federated Energy, explained that gasification technology essentially involves burning the waste and converting it to renewable energy. Zoning Board chair Mariano Taitano assisted Tenorio at the presentation.
In a later interview, Tenorio said he just read in the newspapers that Gov. Ralph DLG Torres’ administration is exploring ways on how to handle the waste at the Marpi landfill. “We’re basically revisiting the same issue that we started about seven years ago,” said Tenorio, adding that he just let the legislators know that there is an alternative in how to take care of the issue.
Tenorio said that Alliance Federated Energy Saipan is a local renewable energy company but they have partners out of the United States and Canada. He said the company will produce clean synthesis gas that can be converted to electricity or supplement the power supply of the current CUC system. Depending on the waste throughput, the project can produce 2.5 to 5 megawatt of base load electrical power via reciprocating engines.
House Public Utilities, Transportation and Communication Committee chair Rep. Marco T. Peter (R-Saipan) said they learned that there was a request for proposals in 2013 regarding one of the renewable energies.
“We just want to find out the status, whatever happened to it,” Peter said.
The lawmaker said if the company will able to produce that much energy for the Commonwealth Utilities Corp. then it could be a benefit to the CNMI.
It was reported in 2013 that Alliance Federated Energy plans to build a $40- to $50- million waste-to-energy project on Saipan to help prolong the Marpi landfill’s lifespan.
Under AFE’s proposed project, the CNMI government will supply trash to the company and then buy the “byproduct” energy from the firm.
