Texas County Judges Get a Waste-to-Energy Pitch From LOCOAL

Murray said the piles often sit a couple of miles off the interstate, out of view, and that the mulch market is close to saturated, so most of the material ends up in large piles that sit for long stretches. In dry seasons, he said, those piles become a fire risk.

"These become fire hazards … They can be accelerants to very large wildfires that we've seen in the last decade," Murray said.

Fire officials share the concern. The Houston Fire Department's fire safety standard for wood waste processors states that "wood chipping, hogging, composting and mulching operations and storage create a significant fire hazard and are rated as a very high hazard."

From an Air Force research contract to a Houston plant

LOCOAL developed its waste-to-energy system with support from the U.S. Air Force through the federal Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program. Federal SBIR records list Air Force Phase I and Phase II awards to the company, which describes itself as seed-funded by an AFWERX contract.

"We developed this technology under the U.S. Air Force Small Business and Innovation Research Program," Murray said. "Once we're finished with the commissioning process, we'll be considered a phase three where you can directly procure our technology as a federal entity."

LOCOAL's first commercial unit is installed in Houston. The system uses pyrolysis, heating wood waste without oxygen, to produce electricity and a high-purity carbon product, and Murray said the company is also moving into rubber from tires.

The unit is built to travel. "It's a 50-foot system that is basically your maximum flatbed sized module that can be transported," Murray said. "You could show up with eight flatbed trucks and within a couple of weeks you've got yourself a power plant that can move about 50 tons of material per system per day."

Waste as a public good

Murray framed the work as a way to make landfills obsolete.

"So what would normally be a cost to somebody, we've turned into a revenue stream," he said.

He also addressed skepticism about carbon markets, arguing that LOCOAL tracks its carbon from where the waste starts to where it ends up. "When you hear about things like carbon credits and people are like that's a bunch of hocus pocus … it is whenever you're measuring it from a helicopter over the Amazon," he said.

The conversation marks Murray's third appearance on The Building Texas Show, following episodes in 2023 and 2024.

County leaders, fire officials and anyone managing a waste pile can watch the full episode on YouTube, find more Texas stories at buildingtexasshow.com and learn more about the technology at locoal.com.

About The Building Texas Show

The Building Texas Show, hosted by Justin McKenzie, tells the stories of the founders, community leaders and projects shaping Texas, from economic development and small business to conservation and education. New episodes publish weekly on YouTube and all major podcast platforms, with highlights on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn at @thebuildingtexasshow. Watch, listen and subscribe at www.buildingtexasshow.com and https://www.youtube.com/@thebuildingtexasshow.