Killick Capital

OTTAWA, Sept. 19 /CNW Telbec/ - A ground breaking ceremony at the Trail Road site today marked the start of onsite construction of the Plasco Energy Group Inc. (Plasco)plant that will demonstrate the company's technology on a commercial-ready scale.  Once complete, the Ottawa demonstration plant will showcase to the world a new environmental and cost-effective alternative for converting waste otherwise destined for landfill into saleable electricity.

"The Plasco project could not be a reality without the efforts of a truly remarkable combination of people and organizations," said Plasco CEO Rod Bryden.  "Mayor Bob Chiarelli's personal leadership and vision, combined with the excellent work done by City management and staff, is responsible for placing Ottawa in North American leadership for dealing with garbage and waste."

"This is the change people want," said Mayor Bob Chiarelli.  "They want their municipality handling waste in better, cleaner, ways.  This project has great promise for a future of clean, safe and economically responsible waste management in Ottawa.  This project, along with our recycling program and upcoming source separate organics program, puts this City among the most progressive in North America for waste management."

Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC) - a foundation created by the Government of Canada - has approved a $6.6 million contribution to the project that has been leveraged by $20.4 million from a consortium that is led by Plasco.  Consortium members include City of Ottawa and HERA Holdings S.A.  The total project value is $27.0 million.

"This project is a wonderful example of how SDTC plays a critical role in helping innovative sustainable technology projects like Plasco's move from research through to the stages of development and demonstration," said Vicky J. Sharpe, president and CEO, SDTC.  "By helping Canadian companies overcome the hurdles in the pre-commercial phase, SDTC helps companies achieve success in the marketplace."

"In addition to the support from SDTC, Plasco has raised significant private investment in the company," said Mr. Bryden.  "I am very pleased to announce that equity investment of $18 million was completed by Plasco in August, bringing to $26 million the equity invested into the Company in the past 12 months."

The Ottawa demonstration facility will process up to 85 tonnes of unsorted waste that would otherwise go to the landfill, into a synthetic gas that will then be used to generate approximately 4MW of net electricity for sale to the grid (enough to power 4600 households).  The process also produces a clean reusable solid by-product that, by volume, amounts to less than one quarter of one percent of the volume of the waste at the curbside.  Impact on the environment, including air emissions from power generation, will meet the stringent limits established for this demonstration project by the Ontario Ministry of Environment.

The City of Ottawa collects approximately 310,000 tonnes of municipal solid waste (MSW) each year.  Thirty percent of collected MSW is currently diverted from landfill through composting and recycling.  Once the City has met its waste diversion target of 60 percent by 2008, 124,000 tonnes of MSW will still go to landfill annually.  This does not include the large amount of Industrial, Commercial & Institutional (ICI) waste landfilled each year.  Carefully evaluating and deploying solutions like Plasco's will be instrumental in substantially reducing that amount.

 

OTTAWA, Sept. 19 /CNW Telbec/ - Plasco Energy Group Inc. (Plasco or The Company) today announced that it has completed an issue of common shares for total gross proceeds of $18 million.  Dundee Securities Corporation was the sole underwriter for this issue.  This equity round follows the August 2005 issue of common shares, which raised $7.3 million.

The August 2005 financing was completed with Killick Capital of St. John's, NL as the lead investor joined by HERA Holdings S.A of Barcelona, Spain and The Rose Corporation of Toronto.  These investors and SC Stormont Holdings Inc. of Ottawa collectively invested $5 million of the $18 million raised in the current round of funding.  The remaining capital was funded by: RAB Capital of London, England, Black River Asset Management of Minneapolis, Minn., and Galtere International of New York.
   
Plasco, a Canadian private corporation based in Ottawa, has developed proprietary technologies for the conversion of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) to a designed synthetic gas for the operation of internal combustion engines to produce electricity.  From each typical tonne of North American MSW processed, Plasco's system produces 1.5 megawatt hours (Mwh) of electricity - 0.3 Mwh of which is utilized operating the facility, providing 1.2 Mwh for sale.  Plasco plants processing 200 tonnes per day or more will use combined cycle to generate additional power from heat from the process and the engines.  When combined cycle generation is used, saleable electricity output is increased to 1.4 Mwh per tonne of waste processed.

Plasco's proprietary technology utilizes a sealed system that produces no air emissions in the conversion of the MSW to synthetic gas.  Air quality from the engines significantly exceeds the regulatory requirements for Ontario, other Canadian provinces, the US and the EU.  In addition to synthetic gas, Plasco technology also produces a solid glass-like material, useful in production of concrete, asphalt and other industrial products.  Gas cleaning systems remove particulate matter, including heavy metals before the gas enters the engines. About 100 grams of this particulate matter is collected for disposal per tonne of waste processed.

Plasco is in the process of completing a full scale, 85 tonnes per day commercial demonstration facility in Ottawa. This facility will process MSW, supplied by the City of Ottawa.  The completed facility will be an integrated conversion system that utilizes a number of sub-systems produced to Plasco's specifications by world-leading manufacturers.  These sub-systems are then integrated onsite at the Ottawa facility, where engines will produce electricity from the synthetic gas.

Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC) - a foundation created by the Government of Canada - has approved a $6.6 million contribution to the Plasco Trail Road demonstration facility.  A ground breaking ceremony was held today at the Trail Road site to mark commencement of onsite work.

The Plasco energy from waste facility is expected to commence operation during the first quarter of 2007.