Cleaner by half

Waste reported by Cape Girardeau corporations dropped by nearly half from 2004 to 2005, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. The agency reported its annual inventory of toxic chemical releases by heavy industry last month.

Area industries reported producing 3.39 million pounds of total waste in 2005, the most recent year data is available. That is down from 6.34 million pounds in 2004. Local waste figures have steadily declined since 1997, when they totaled almost 42 million pounds.

Of the waste produced in Cape Girardeau, 304,000 pounds of it was released into the environment in 2005. Although that figure is up from 228,000 pounds in 2004, it continued a long-term decline from a high point of 1.3 million pounds released in 1997.

While there is no single explanation for the drop, two of the area's biggest manufacturers, BioKyowa and Buzzi Unicem, provide some insight. Together, the companies accounted for 95 percent of the chemical waste produced and 99 percent of the waste released.

BioKyowa

The large kiln, a black horizontal cylinder, center right, used for producing cement at Buzzi Unicem USA uses waste from other industries for about a third of its fuel.

BioKyowa is the Japanese-owned food supplement company with a facility on Nash Road near the Cape Gir?ardeau Regional Airport.

The plant operates by taking corn syrup and fermenting it to separate out amino acids for use in products like energy bars and protein drinks.

During the process of filtering the plant's waste water, managers control for oxygen, chemical and organic elements. But they still are stuck with leftovers, including ammonia, methanol, nitrate compounds and nitric acid. All of these are deemed by the EPA to be harmful to the environment.

BioKyowa says it has found ways to manage the waste it produces. In 2001, it opened an $85 million processing facility and waved goodbye to one it had been using since 1983. With the switch came a new, cleaner method of fermentation.

"We switched from using molasses, which has a lot of impurities -- it is a cruder form of sugar -- and started using corn syrup. So by going to that we dramatically decreased all waste," said safety and environmental manager Bruce Blankenship.

This was foremost a business decision, say BioKyowa leaders, but also helps the environment.

"If you're going to make a much more pure product, you have to have much more pure raw materials," said plant manager Bill Hinckley, adding that the upgraded plant is much greener.

"That's how you justify spending the money, almost $100 million, to build this plant. You can't do that and say there's no environmental benefit," he said.

According to EPA data, in 2000 the company produced almost 2.1 million pounds of total waste, but by 2002 that figure dropped to 555,000 pounds. In 2005, BioKyowa produced about 422,000 pounds of waste.

Blankenship said the reduction also is due to strict oversight by the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, which makes quarterly unannounced trips to the plant.

In 2005, BioKyowa discharged more than 178,000 pounds of ammonia, which is used during the fermentation process to control pH, into the Mississippi River via a five-mile pipe from the facility. The plant also dumped 25,000 pounds of nitrate compounds into the river.

But BioKyowa says its job is to follow state and federal guidelines. "It's all regulated. They do their job and they have the regulations in place for a reason. As far as we're concerned, it's just an extension of the production process," Blankenship said.

Blankenship added that BioKyowa minimizes its dumps by siphoning off a nitrous-rich "sludge" from its wastewater plant and applying it to farmland as a fertilizer. The plant distributes about 275,000 pounds of the sludge monthly to its own farms and others.

Buzzi Unicem USA

One major reason for the drop off in total waste in Cape Girardeau is the work of Buzzi Unicem USA. The sprawling mine and plant on South Sprigg Street produced more than 1.5 million tons of Portland cement last year.

But while doing this, the company cut total waste from 5.97 million pounds to 2.81 million during the recent reporting period.

Buzzi environmental engineer Paul Schell said the company works hard but that the recent statistics may be deceiving. Schell says Buzzi recently upgraded its detection software used to track toxic chemicals in the fuel used to operate the plant. Previously, Schell said, the plant had to assume toxic chemicals existed up to a certain level to meet federal guidelines because the software did not have a precise calibration.

"It may say there is no lead detected, but if our machinery can only see down to 10 parts per million, you don't know. You have to assume some is there," he said.

The new equipment made Buzzi's reports more accurate.

Buzzi is what is known as an alternative fuels facility, meaning it burns waste from other industries, such as paint, ink and solvents. The burning heats a 235-foot, slowly rotating kiln where finely ground limestone and other materials are transformed into gravel. The gravel is later mixed with gypsum, sand and water to make concrete.

The temperature of the kiln needs to stay at a little less than 3,000 degrees, and that requires lots of fuel.

Waste accounts for about 30 percent of its fuel. Last year, the company burned more than 125 million pounds of waste-derived fuel, replacing between 50,000 and 60,000 tons of coal.

But because Buzzi accepts fuel from such varying locations, it must closely monitor what it is burning. Every tanker or barrel that comes in has to be tested.

Even staying within permissible levels, the concrete manufacturer handled and disposed of 33 kinds of toxic chemicals in 2005, according to the EPA. More than 98,000 pounds of chemicals were released into the environment.

Schell, though, asks people to put those figures in perspective. His company uses fuel that would otherwise simply be waste and is able to capture the vast majority of the harmful emissions, he said.

"We have a 99.999 percent destruction efficiency. That means for every part per million of benzene that comes into the kiln, we destroy 99.999 percent of that, which is better than most hazardous waste incinerators," he said.

Four environmental science professors at Southeast Missouri State University declined or were unable to comment on the EPA data.

tgreaney@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 245