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36 operating in southern California for two years. It was built and is operated by International Environmental Solutions, of Romoland, CA. 3.7 Plasma Arc The plasma arc furnace is a commercial unit process made and marketed by Westinghouse. It has been successfully applied to a variety of industrial applications; however, there are no commercial -scale plasma arc systems firing MSW in the United States at the time of this report. There are pilot plants used for ash vitrification in Japan and a smaller Japanese facility firing MSW, but attempts to apply this process in the United States have not yet been successful. However, several vendors are advancing projects as described earlier. The electric power requirements for the torch are significant, and maintenance of torches and reactor refractory materials is also a significant expense item. Few, if any of the plasma arc pilot facilities have been able to generate a fuel gas (syngas), and air emissions have been found to be no better than conventional incineration systems. The Atlanta firm Geoplasma has a development contract and is negotiating a contract for implementation of a large plasma arc facility for MSW in St. Lucie County, Florida, which will also to be used for processing mined landfill waste. The City of Tallahassee, Florida approved the contract for Green Power Systems to begin development of a 1,000 TPD plasma gasification plant, which is scheduled to begin operations in 2010. 3.8 Biological Fuel Production 3.8.1 Cellulosic Ethanol There are a number of commercial facilities in the U.S. (See Table 3 -2) and worldwide producing cellulosic ethanol, a biofuel produced from lignocellulose, a structural material that comprises much of the mass of plants. These facilities utilize a variety of biomass feedstocks. Biomass is any living or recently dead biological material that can be used as fuel or for industrial production. Biomass feedstocks include crops grown specifically for use as a feedstock, such as corn or hemp, agricultural residues, and other organic residues and wastes, including the organic portion of MSW. At the time of this report, no U.S. facilities are feeding MSW but a number of vendors are planning to use MSW as a feedstock. Abengoa Bioenergy owns and operates five cellulosic ethanol facilities throughout the United States and Europe with a total production capacity of over 200 million gallons annually. It is currently the fifth largest producer of cellulosic ethanol in the United States with a total of four plants located in Kansas, New Mexico, and Nebraska. The most recent began operations in mid 2007, bringing Abengoa Bioenergy's nameplate capacity to more than 200 million gallons per year in the U.S. In addition, Abengoa Bioenergy operates four plants in Europe. The world's first commercial scale demonstration biomass plant is being constructed by Abengoa Bioenergy to exhibit its biomass -to- ethanol process technology. Located in Babilafuente (Salamanca), Spain, the biomass plant will process 77 tons of agricultural residues, such as wheat straw, each day and produce over 1.3 million gallons of fuel grade ethanol per year. Bioethanol is most currently used in Brazil, where longstanding policies promote and encourage the use of bioethanol as fuel for transportation. GBB/C08027 -01 7 August 15, 2008