9VAC20-130-10. Definitions. We recommend the following:

“Principal recyclable materials” or “PRM” be expanded to include mattresses and box springs.

“Material Recovery Facility” be expanded to include “Construction and Demolition (CDD) Material Recovery Facility” with a definition stating, “a facility for the collection, processing and marketing of recyclable materials including concrete, brick, block, metal, wood, plastic, shingles, and drywall.

Gasification is a process that converts biomass- or fossil fuel-based carbonaceous materials into gases, including as the largest fractions: nitrogen (N₂), carbon onoxide (CO), hydrogen (H₂), and carbon dioxide (CO2). This is achieved by reacting the feedstock material at high temperatures (typically >700 °C), without combustion, via controlling the amount of oxygen and/or steam present in the reaction. The resulting gas mixture is called syngas (from synthesis gas) or producer gas and is itself a fuel due to the flammability of the H₂ and CO of which the gas is largely composed. Power can be derived from the subsequent combustion of the resultant gas, and is considered to be a source of renewable energy if the gasified compounds were obtained from biomass feedstock.

Pyrolysis is one of the technologies available to convert biomass to an intermediate liquid product that can be refined to drop-in hydrocarbon biofuels, oxygenated fuel additives and petrochemical replacements. Pyrolysis is the heating of an organic material, such as biomass, in the absence of oxygen.  Biomass pyrolysis is usually conducted at or above 500 °C, providing enough heat to deconstruct the strong bio-polymers mentioned above.   Because no oxygen is present combustion does not occur, rather the biomass thermally decomposes into combustible gases and bio-char.  Most of these combustible gases can be condensed into a combustible liquid, called pyrolysis oil (bio-oil), though there are some permanent gases (CO­2, CO, H2, light hydrocarbons), some of which can be combusted to provide the heat for the process.  Thus, pyrolysis of biomass produces three products: one liquid, bio-oil, one solid, bio-char and one gaseous, syngas.  The proportion of these products depends on several factors including the composition of the feedstock and process parameters.  However, all things being equal, the yield of bio-oil is optimized when the pyrolysis temperature is around 500 °C and the heating rate is high (1000 °C/s) fast pyrolysis conditions.