Hydro-Québec selects two RCI Technologies projects for the first anaerobic
digestion plants in Québec - An investment worth over $60 million

MONTREAL , Dec. 18 /CNW Telbec/ - RCI Environment is pleased to announce that two anaerobic digestion (AD) plants submitted by its subsidiary, RCI Technologies, Inc., as part of its offer in response to Hydro-Québec's call for tenders for the purchase of energy produced by biomass cogeneration (A/O 2009-01), have been retained. These two facilities, which will be located in Longueuil and Montreal's Anjou borough will represent an investment of over $60 million . RCI Environment will be the first company developing this leading edge technology in Quebec .

Each plant will transform over 100,000 tons of organic material into biogas that will power generators with an installed power capacity of 3.9 MW.

"The amount of electricity generated by each facility represents the average annual consumption of over 2,000 families and will eliminate approximately 140,000 tons of greenhouse gases. Thanks to Hydro-Québec support, a new technology will grow in Quebec to better manage organic waste." declared Jean Beaudoin , RCI Environment's First Vice President for Strategic Development. "Our plants will reduce the landfill of significant amounts of organic waste and will contribute to the objectives that the Government of Quebec has stated in its new waste management policy and proposals to the Copenhagen Conference."

The new facilities will employ reliable and proven technology adapted for Quebec and based on an anaerobic digestion system developed by the German company LIPP, represented here by Bio-Méthatech. With over 700 installations throughout the world, LIPP is a world-leading supplier of equipment for the transformation of organic material into biogas.

"These plants will make it possible to take a giant step towards the implementation of RCI Environment's development strategy which is aimed at providing municipalities, institutions and companies with integrated and optimized waste management services designed to reduce waste landfill to a minimum by emphasizing reuse, recovery and recycling," Jean Beaudoin added.

Hydro-Québec did not retain the proposal for a third plant, one that RCI Environment had planned for the Outaouais region. The company will review its proposal and study other scenarios.

About RCI Environment

RCI Environment is Quebec's largest integrated waste management company. RCI Environment offers a complete range of collection, sorting and recovery services to over 20 000 industrial, commercial and institutional customers and more than 70 cities located in the main regions of the province with a population of over 1.5 million. Because of the integrated nature of its facilities, RCI Environment optimizes the recycling and transformation of residual waste. The company contributes, through its sister company GENS, to the management of the technical landfill site in Lachute where a bioreactor landfilling technology increases the production of biogas that is channelled to an on-site power plant, where it is used to generate annually 8.5 MW/h of electricity for Hydro-Quebec

For further information: Daniel Granger, [phone], cell: [phone]