Neal Yancey

Reducing Contamination in the Recycling Stream 

Neal Yancey, Principle Engineer, Idaho National Laboratory - BEA

The Biomass Feedstock National User Facility has, since it began in 2013, focused research on increasing the value of low-value feedstocks to support the bioeconomy.  Part of that effort has been aimed at removal of contaminants like rock, soil, tramp metal, and other inorganic and non-productive organic fractions.  More recent interest in recovering or utilizing MSW and e-waste has led the researchers at the BFNUF to utilize the same or similar fractionation technologies to purify or increase the value from these otherwise unrecoverable waste streams which are destined for landfill disposal.  This presentation reports the recovery rates observed using air classification, screening, metal recovery/removal, and density separation as it is used to create higher value chemicals and/or feedstocks for bioenergy from MSW, E-waste, and other similar waste streams.  

Neal holds a BS and MS degree from Utah State University in Environmental Engineering.  Neal has been an engineer at the Idaho National Laboratory for over 25 years, much of that time spent in research in the Bioenergy program.  Neal is currently the Operations Manager for the Biomass Feedstock National User Facility, a facility established to support preprocessing of marginal to no value waste streams from agriculture, forestry, and other industries and convert them into higher value feedstocks the can be used to supply energy and support energy independence for the United States.  Neal leads a team of researchers at the User Facility that supports research for the bioenergy industry for the United States and worldwide.  Neal has contributed to many publications on the topic as well as participated on multiple conferences as a panel member or to be the lead technical program presenters.  Neal’s area of research at the Idaho National Laboratory is in material size reduction and flow and has spent the majority of his career developing lower cost alternatives and processes for handling highly variable feedstocks like corn stover, forest residue, MSW and other feedstock.