Solena Group’s process has no commercial track record, and the company has not yet secured financing to build its $55-million facility in Lancaster. Solena is one of many firms looking for ways to cheaply produce hydrogen without generating planet-warming gases in hopes that the clean-burning fuel will one day replace oil and gas for transportation or heating, the Los Angeles Times reported.
The company’s process, which uses so-called plasma torches, caught the attention of Lancaster Mayor R. Rex Parris, according to The Times. The city will expedite Solena’s permitting process and send the company its paper recyclables, rather than paying to dump them in a landfill. Some U.S. cities have been sending recyclables to landfills since China stopped accepting exported waste in 2018.
If the hydrogen plant doesn’t materialize or otherwise fails, there’s little downside for the city, Parris told The Times in an interview. The upside would be pioneering a technology that could dramatically cut emissions. Lancaster will own a small stake in the plant.
“If we continue producing energy as we have been, we’re not going to be here in 50 years,” Parris said, referring to the impacts of climate change. “I’m excited to see how well it works, and how quickly we can expand this through the nation.”
A maverick Republican, Parris has made climate change his signature issue. He helped make Lancaster the first city in Southern California to ditch its privately owned electric utility and buy cleaner power for residents. He also convinced the Chinese automaker BYD to build an electric bus factory in Lancaster.
As a trial lawyer, he is representing thousands of people suing Southern California Gas Co. over the alleged health impacts of the 2015 methane blowout at the company’s Aliso Canyon storage facility.
“Most of what we do is the first time it’s ever been done,” Parris said.
Solena Group’s chief executive, Robert Do, has been honing his waste-to-fuel technology for decades.
Do co-founded the company in the 1980s with Salvador Camacho, a former NASA engineer who helped the space agency develop a plasma heating technique that could generate temperatures high enough to simulate re-entry to Earth’s atmosphere. The technology was critical to testing the heat shields that would protect the first Americans in space as they returned to Earth.
A 1994 NASA publication described plasma heating as “passing a strong electric current through a rarefied gas to create a plasma ionized gas that produces an intensely hot flame.” Camacho started a spinoff company utilizing the technology in 1971.
“It’s a pretty well-demonstrated industrial equipment,” Do told The Times in an interview.
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RUDY G. says
THANK YOU AV PRESS FOR TAKING DOWN MY INFO ON THIS COMPANY GOING BK BACK IN 2012 TALKING ABOUT A FREE PRESS SEEMS MORE LIKE A SMALL TOWN CONTROL ISSUE WITH THE ON LINE NEWS BS.
US-headed Solena Fuels Corporation, a developer of high-temperature plasma gasification technology to produce sustainable fuels from low carbon-bearing organic waste has filed for bankruptcy. In February 2010, the company had announced it was partnering with UK national air carrier British Airways to build Europe’s first sustainable aviation fuel plant in London using municipal solid waste.
William says
Trump had 4 BANKRUPTCIES. Some businessman.
His casino went bankrupt. How bad do you have to be to have your casino go bankrupt when it’s set up to have the house win?
Amazing, isn’t it? He’s out to bankrupt the country too.
Rudy G. says
The City Of Lancaster Should Do A Background Check On This Company PLEASE READ BELOW.
Solena Fuels files for bankruptcy October 25, 2015
US-headed Solena Fuels Corporation, a developer of high-temperature plasma gasification technology to produce sustainable fuels from low carbon-bearing organic waste has filed for bankruptcy. In February 2010, the company had announced it was partnering with UK national air carrier British Airways to build Europe’s first sustainable aviation fuel plant in London using municipal solid waste.
https://bioenergyinternational.com/technology-suppliers/solena-fuels-files-bankruptcy
This Project Did Not work In London So Good Luck.
http://biomassmagazine.com/articles/3604/british-airways-solena-group-team-up-for-waste-to-jet-fuel-plant
John Thomas says
Your not suppose to keep track of the details of what he actually said. Pretzel logic is in play on a grand scale in Lancaster.
John Thomas says
Parris is a maverick Republican who endorses Democrats, that’s called a RINO. LA Times is a pay per view paper when they write about Parris.
Magnetlady says
Sounds like this may be another ”Solendra” debacle! Remember, Solendra got millions of Taxpayer Money for solar panels, then went BANKRUPT!!
William says
Please, MagnetLady.
Trump has blown more on trips to Mar a Lago than anything you can point to by a Democrat.
Are you suffering enough under Trump? There’s much to come, y’know.
Planet of the Humans says
So burning trees in the form of paper is ok in Rex’s eyes, even though it produces carbon dioxide, but burning natural gas is bad when it produces carbon dioxide? You drill for natural gas which is bad, but you cut down trees for paper which is good?
He is the ultimate hypocrite.
Newspapers are dead says
A maverick Republican that endorses Democrats is a generous label for a self serving nut. LA Times is a pay for view newspaper if Parris is featured.
Van Dammit says
Is Rex’s private plane fueled by renewables? His electric car that gets charged at night is powered by fossil fuels.