Burning old tires generates energy
By James Gonser
Advertiser Leeward Bureau
KAPOLEI — In addition to the safety of your family, there is now another good reason to replace the balding tires on your car — it can help generate energy.
Cory Lum • The Honolulu Advertiser
AES Hawai'i Inc., a coal-fired independent power producer in Campbell Industrial Park, has been given approval from the state Department of Health to resume its used-tire burning service to create electricity.
AES Hawai'i Inc. produces tire-derived energy.
"We look forward to continuing our tire burning service," said Kevin Pierce, president of AES Hawai'i. "Tire burning saves consumers money and is good for the environment."
The company, which supplies about 180 megawatts or 20 percent of O'ahu's daily electricity needs to Hawaiian Electric Co., stopped burning used tires as fuel more than a year ago after concerns that too much iron was being discarded into the soil from the ash.
The Health Department has since ruled that the iron limit is not applicable, and the company resumed its tire recycling late last month.
Steve Chang, chief of the department's Solid & Hazardous Waste Branch, said the company's permit has been modified to allow more flexibility.
"Their permits for iron were fairly low, and Hawaiian soil is typically high in iron," Chang said. "The normal soil is significantly higher than what they had a permit for, and that was adjusted."
Chang said the company primarily burns coal, but is allowed to have up to 2 percent of its fuel from an alternative source such as tires or used oil.
Cory Lum • The Honolulu Advertiser
Pierce said AES started burning tires as fuel in 1997 and can burn more than 600,000 tires a year, which would otherwise either be sent to landfills or shipped to the Mainland. Energy from that many tires could produce only about 1 percent of the company's total power output, he said.
President and General Manager Kevin Pierce walks near a pile of tire-derived fuel at the AES Hawai'i furnace/plant in Campbell Industrial Park.
AES buys the tires from Unitek Environmental Services, also in Campbell Industrial Park, which in turn processes the used tires they get from tire dealers. Unitek then shreds, chips and removes the steel belting from the tires.
"When we were not burning them, Unitek was shipping tires to the Mainland, which is much more expensive then sending them next door to us," Pierce said. "That cost goes right to the consumer."
AES, which opened in 1982 and employs 57 people, imports coal from Indonesia. The coal is unloaded at Kalaeloa Harbor and sent along a 1 1/2-mile conveyer belt to the power plant. AES is the single largest supplier of power to Hawaiian Electric. Because coal is less expensive than oil, the company saves consumers more than $20 million a year in energy costs over oil-fired plants, Pierce said.
With more than 1 million cars on the roads, Hawai'i must continue to make use of alternative energy and recycling, Pierce said.
"On the environmental front, burning tires is a renewable fuel so it's offsetting a small amount of coal, a fossil fuel, and is reducing greenhouse gases," Pierce said. "It's also good for the consumer because they are not having to pay to ship tires to the Mainland, and reduces the cost of driving."
The company is now getting set up to burn waste oil, which is a real problem in the Islands, he said.
Correction: Unitek Environmental Services does not buy used tires from tire dealers as stated in a previous version of this story. Unitek does, however, charge a processing fee to businesses that bring in used tires for recycling.
