BILL ANALYSIS Ó
SB 804
SENATE COMMITTEE ON ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY
Senator Jerry Hill, Chair
2013-2014 Regular Session
BILL NO: SB 804
AUTHOR: Lara
AMENDED: April 22, 2013
FISCAL: Yes HEARING DATE: May 1, 2013
URGENCY: No CONSULTANT: Rebecca
Newhouse
SUBJECT : BIOMASS: CONVERSION TECHNOLOGY
SUMMARY :
Existing law , under the California Integrated Waste Management
Act (Act):
1) Requires each city or county source reduction and recycling
element to include an implementation schedule that shows a
city or county must divert 50% of solid waste from landfill
disposal or transformation by January 1, 2000, through
source reduction, recycling, and composting activities
(Public Resources Code §41780).
2) Establishes a state policy goal that 75% of solid waste
generated be diverted from landfill disposal through source
reduction, recycling or composting by 2020 (PRC §41780.01).
3) Defines "transformation" to mean incineration, pyrolysis,
distillation, or biological conversion other than
composting and specifies that "transformation" does not
include composting, gasification, or biomass conversion
(PRC §40201).
4) Defines "biomass conversion" to mean the controlled
combustion, when separated from other solid waste and used
for producing electricity or heat of specified biomass,
including, agricultural crop residues, bark, lawn, yard,
garden clippings, leaves, silvicultural residue, tree and
brush pruning, wood, wood chips, and wood waste and
nonrecyclable pulp or nonrecyclable paper materials (PRC
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§40106).
5) Specifies that "biomass conversion" does not include the
controlled combustion of recyclable pulp or recyclable
paper materials, or materials that contain sewage sludge,
industrial sludge, medical waste, hazardous waste, or
either high-level or low-level radioactive waste (PRC
§40106).
6) Defines "composting" to mean the controlled or uncontrolled
biological decomposition of organic wastes (PRC §40116.1).
This bill :
1) Includes conversion technologies in the definition of
"biomass conversion."
2) Clarifies that for the purposes of complying with specified
provisions of the integrated waste management act,
composting includes aerobic and anaerobic decomposition or
organic wastes.
COMMENTS :
1) Purpose of Bill . According to the author, "Existing
California law defines "biomass conversion" as the direct
combustion of certain listed types of biomass materials.
This definition excludes conversion technologies that can
more efficiently generate electricity from biomass with
lower air emissions. Additionally, existing law is unclear
regarding how anaerobic digestion facilities should be
permitted. This hampers the State's goals of diverting
additional organic materials from disposal."
2)What are conversion technologies ? According to CalRecycle,
conversion technologies are processes that can convert
organic materials into usable forms of energy including
heat, steam, electricity, natural gas, and liquid fuels.
Conversion technologies are grouped into three primary
classes: thermochemical, biochemical, and physiocochemical.
Thermochemical conversion processes include combustion,
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gasification, and pyrolysis. Thermochemical conversion is
characterized by higher temperatures and faster conversion
rates. It is best suited for lower moisture feedstocks.
Thermochemical routes can convert all of the organic portion
of suitable feedstocks. The inorganic fraction of a
feedstock does not contribute to the energy products
produced, but may result in fouling of high temperature
equipment. Inorganic constituents may also accelerate some
of the conversion reactions.
Biochemical conversion processes include aerobic conversion
(i.e., composting), anaerobic digestion (which occurs in
landfills and controlled reactors or digesters), and
anaerobic fermentation (for example, the conversion of
sugars from cellulose to ethanol). Biochemical conversion
proceeds at lower temperatures and lower reaction rates.
Higher moisture feedstocks are generally good candidates for
biochemical processes. The lignin fraction of biomass
cannot be converted by anaerobic biochemical means and only
very slowly through aerobic decomposition. As a
consequence, a significant fraction of woody and some other
fibrous feedstocks exits the process as a residue that may
or may not have market value. The residue called digestate
can be composted.
Physiochemical conversion involves the physical and chemical
synthesis of products from feedstocks (for example,
biodiesel from waste fats, oils, and grease--known as FOG)
and is primarily associated with the transformation of fresh
or used vegetable oils, animal fats, greases, tallow, and
other suitable feedstocks into liquid fuels or biodiesel.
The definition of transformation in current law captures
many thermochemical, biochemical and physiocochemical
conversion technologies, except those processes which are
specifically excluded, namely composting, gasification and
biomass conversion. Under current law, only 10% of solid
waste that undergoes transformation may count as diversion,
for purposes of compliance by local governments with the 50%
solid waste diversion mandate. Biomass conversion, currently
defined as the controlled combustion of specified biomass
feedstocks when separated from municipal solid waste, is
excluded from the definition of transformation, and is not
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counted as disposal. SB 804, by adding conversion
technologies in the definition of biomass conversion, would
exclude those same feedstocks when processed by conversion
technologies, from being counted as disposal.
3) Composting and anaerobic digestion . Both composting and
anaerobic digestion (AD) refer to the biological
decomposition of organic material. AD is a fermentation
technique that operates without free oxygen and results in
a biogas containing mostly methane and carbon dioxide, with
some fraction of impurities including hydrogen sulfide and
ammonia. Anaerobic digestion occurs in manure lagoons
(covered or not), controlled reactors, or digesters and is
the principal process occurring in landfills. In contrast,
composting is an aerobic process, using oxygen, primarily
used to produce nutrient rich soil.
4) Regulating anaerobic digestion and composting . CalRecycle
regulates solid waste handling, processing and disposal,
including the operation of landfills, transfer-processing
stations, material recovery facilities, compost facilities
and waste-to-energy facilities, or conversion facilities
(transformation). CalRecycle's regulatory structure is
designed to provide a level of regulatory oversight
commensurate with the impacts associated with a solid waste
handling or disposal activity. Transformation facilities,
including incineration and pyrolysis, use municipal solid
waste (MSW) as their feedstock, and are required to obtain
a full solid waste facility permit, which entails the
greatest level of review and oversight due to the potential
hazards associated with processing MSW. Because of the
extensive permitting requirements, full solid waste
facility permits are much more costly and time consuming to
obtain for the owner or operator.
The definition for transformation includes "other
biological conversion other than composting" and because
current law lacks a definition for AD, concerns have been
raised that anaerobic digestion could fall under the
definition of high-heat technologies commonly identified
with transformation, making such facilities more difficult
to permit in the state.
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An organic (and, therefore compostable) feedstock is used
for AD, and for that reason, AD facilities do not pose the
same hazards as transformation facilities handling MSW.
SB 804 would clarify that for purposes of promoting waste
management practices, achieving the statewide 75% solid
waste diversion target, and as a part of county and city
composting programs, composting includes AD.
Suggested amendment . There are many other provisions in the
Act not referenced in this bill that reference composting.
The bill could create confusion by specifying only a few
sections of the Act that reference composting include
anaerobic digestion. In order to treat anaerobic digestion
consistently throughout the Act, an amendment should be
taken to strike the code sections referenced in the
definition of compost.
5) Previous version . The previous version of SB 804 included
much more expansive language regarding conversion
technologies, and contained significant changes to CEQA,
renewable portfolio standard (RPS) and waste diversion
policies as they currently apply to conversion
technologies. The Committee may wish to secure a commitment
from the author that if the bill is later amended to
include similar types of policy changes, the Senate
Environmental Quality Committee will request that the bill
come back to committee.
6) Related legislation .
a) AB 997 (Chesbro) of 2013 defines anaerobic digestion
in the Integrated Waste Management Act and amends the
definition of composting to include anaerobic digestion
processes. AB 997 is currently on the Assembly floor.
b) AB 1126 (Gordon) of 2013 adds thermal conversion to
the definition of biomass conversion, clarifies that
composting includes anaerobic digestion, and makes other
changes related to municipal solid waste conversion. AB
1126 is currently in Assembly Natural Resources.
SOURCE : California State Association of Counties
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County of Los Angeles
SUPPORT : Los Angeles County Solid Waste Management
Committee/
Integrated Waste Management Task Force
OPPOSITION : None on file