ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (July 1)—Aquila Inc., a Kansas City, Mo.-based energy firm, has received approval from the Missouri Department of Natural Resources to use tires as fuel at its Lake Road power plant in St. Joseph.
It will start a test burn of tire-derived fuel at Lake Road in late July or August, a company spokesman said, and next year plans to start burning 100,000 tires a year there. Aquila already uses 1 million tires annually as TDF at its power plant in Sibley, Mo., the spokesman added.
Missouri's 50-cent-per-tire fee for its scrap tire fund ended Jan. 1, but the spokesman couldn't say whether the lapse of the fee had anything to do with Aquila's decision to expand its TDF use in Missouri, or whether it supports reinstatement of the fee.