State Fair Community College today signed a letter of intent with Hitec LLC establishing the company as the first incubator tenant of the college’s Missouri Center for Waste to Energy project.
SFCC President Dr. Marsha Drennon and Hitec founder and owner Harvey G. Buhr signed the letter at an open house at Hitec’s research and development laboratory northeast of Jefferson City.
Hitec has developed a recycling system that can convert scrap tires and other waste materials into alternative energy while reclaiming valuable, reusable byproducts in an environmentally friendly way.
The reclaimed materials include fuel oil, which can be used for heating or as a diesel fuel additive; gas, which can be used to power electrical generators or as an efficient heat source; carbon, used in manufacturing new carbon products or as a heating component or additive; and high-carbon steel sought by steel recycling companies worldwide.
Dr. Drennon said partnering with Hitec LLC is an exciting next step for the Missouri Center for Waste to Energy.
“Hitec’s process is viable and important from a recycling perspective, and the fact that its output creates energy makes it a natural fit for the center’s mission,” she said. “We’re excited to have them as a part of the project.”
Buhr said Hitec is proud to be the first incubator tenant in SFCC’s waste to energy project and said his company’s recycling systems will help clean up stockpiles of scrap tires in an eco-friendly manner.
“Our environment is being bombarded with a hazardous accumulation of scrap tires,” he said. “More than 270 million passenger and light truck tires a year are being discarded. While over 50 percent of these used tires are being burned as tire-derived fuel or recycled, many continue to be dumped in landfills, stockpiled and illegally dumped. There are also millions of pounds of large off-the-road and agriculture tires that are not included in the 270 million passenger and light truck tire statistic.”
Laurie Peters, Hitec administrative assistant, said Buhr founded the company in 2004 after 14 years of private research in converting waste to energy on tires, plastics and various types of biomass.
Peters said Hitec has completed two years of research and development for the Army Research Laboratory under applied research grants from the Leonard Wood Institute and is now ready to move into commercialization.
SFCC is developing the Missouri Center for Waste to Energy in partnership with Waste Corporation of Missouri, ProEnergy, Kansas City Power & Light, the University of Central Missouri, the University of Missouri, Crowder College, and city and county agencies. It will have three main components: a power generation facility, a training and educational center and an incubator for emerging energy technology providers.
The partners will combine efforts to provide research, development and hands-on training opportunities for students.
New curriculum focused on alternative energy also will be written to provide Missouri students with the knowledge needed to become leaders in the expanding alternative energy field. SFCC received a $718,500 state grant in March to develop alternative energy curriculum.
