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Project Fact Sheet
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Aries Taunton: Sustainable Biosolids Upcycling
The Aries Biosolids Gasification Facility will be the first biosolids processing plant in Massachusetts to embrace the idea of upcycling to solve the human waste dilemma. Gasification disrupts the traditional methods of municipal biosolids disposal by eliminating the need to landfill or incinerate. Instead, the organic material in biosolids is transformed into valuable end products, thereby converting a linear process into a vital step of the circular economy. Our long term, cost-effective biosolids management solution protects clean water resources, reduces environmental impact, and generates renewable energy, thereby mitigating climate change while also meeting the primary objective of Taunton to sustainably manage its biosolids. Unfortunately, some misinformation has been circulated about this project. Click on the link below to get the real facts.
Aries Taunton Facility Location
Fact vs. Fiction
Fact: Aries uses Fluidized Bed Gasification Technology and state-of-the-art air quality controls
Fact: Enclosed buildings and container trucks prevent odors
Fact: Aries is net-negative for greenhouse gas emission
Fact: The Aries facility will be built using private funding
Fact: Gasification upcycles biosolids into usable products.
Fact: Biochar is a green product that provides permanent carbon sequestration
Fact: Aries Year 1 economic benefit offers $2.15 Million in value to the community of Taunton
Fiction: Aries is an incinerator
Fiction: Processing biosolids will make the neighborhood smell
Fiction: Aries is major air polluter
Fiction: This facility will be built using tax-payer dollars
Fiction: Landfilling is the best solution for biosolids
Fiction: Biochar is toxic
Fiction: Landfilling or incinerating Taunton’s biosolids costs the community less
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Aries Taunton Biosolids Gasification Facility?
This revolutionary facility will transform organic material into beneficial products by gasifying biosolids from regional wastewater treatment facilities and volumetrically reducing them by approximately 95%. The facility will use a highly efficient, state-of-the-art fluidized bed gasifier to convert 470 tons of biosolids per day into 25 tons of biochar. Biosolids are the feedstock of the Aries process - syngas and biochar are the resulting products.
How does the community of Taunton benefit from the Aries facility serving the region?
Municipal wastewater treatment plants in the region are facing a crisis - they are running out of places to safely dispose of biosolids. Gasification ensures the triple bottom line: cost savings for municipalities, sustainable operation of wastewater treatment facilities, and the protection of clean water resources like rivers, lakes and the ocean.
How is Gasification different from Incineration?
Gasification is a thermal process that converts organic material into useable products. Gasifiers operate at high temperatures in an oxygen starved environment with no flame present – NOTHING IS BURNED. The Federal EPA has ruled that the Aries fluidized bed technology is a gasifier, NOT an incinerator. Read EPA Letter here
Will the Aries technology destroy PFAS "forever chemicals" found in biosolids?
Recent studies have shown thermal conversion destroys PFA S. Thermal oxidizers, like the one that will be used in the Aries facility, have been approved for removing PFAS from sources, such as a coating facility in NH. Through the Massachusetts environmental review process, Aries will document how PFAS removal will be both safe and effective.
What is Fluidized Bed Gasification?
Fluidized Bed Gasification is a process that converts carbon-containing waste material into a synthetic fuel gas, along with a very small amount of inert char.
Learn more here
How will we know if this technology works?
The soon to open Aries Linden biosolids gasification plant in New Jersey is currently under construction and will be completed before the permitting of the Taunton facility is complete. The Linden facility will serve as a demonstration of the validity of the Aries technology and will undergo rigorous testing to confirm the facility is environmentally safe.
How will the Aries Taunton Gasification Facility protect regional
air quality?
Aries is committed to protecting the health of the residents of Taunton and will protect air quality by using state-of-the-art emissions control technology. The process will be permitted by the MassDEP as a gasification facility on a minor source basis. The facility will reduce biosolids hauling truck emissions regionally, create synthesis gas from biosolids, and utilize renewable energy, making the site a net negative greenhouse gas facility.
Are biosolids toxic?
No environmental regulatory agency in the U.S. has classified biosolids as toxic. The US EPA on its website states: " The presence of a pollutant in biosolids alone does not mean that the biosolids pose harm to human health and the environment."
Sustainable Biosolids Gasification Technology
Addressing climate change presents an opportunity to create an economy that moves away from linear activities towards regenerative ones; cost effectively meeting the needs of the people today and those of future generations. The Aries Taunton Biosolids Gasification Facility will meet that challenge, by sustaining the natural environment through organic material transformation and protecting clean air and water.
$2.15 Million Year 1
Economic Benefit &
$900K Annual Benefit
Generate
Renewable
Energy
Creates Local,
High Paying
Clean Tech Jobs
Reduces Long
Distance Truck
Traffic & Emissions
Net Negative
GHG Facility
Nothing Burned
Protects
Clean Water