An upstart Hawaii company aims to establish a second garbage-to-energy power plant on Oahu using technology proclaimed as superior to the city’s long-running H-POWER facility.

Details of the plan, however, have not been publicly shared despite an effort by the company to obtain state approval to issue special municipal bonds. The bonds help private entities tap low-cost financing for projects providing a public benefit in select industries.

Honolulu-based Next Level Solutions Group Inc., which was incorporated in August, is asking the Legislature for authorization to issue and sell $50 million in special-purpose revenue bonds to help finance a gasification waste-to-energy project in Honolulu.

Such bonds, if approved and sold, would be a debt obligation of the company — not the state — as a utility operation that can deliver a public benefit in return for the advantageous financing.

Next Level, led by local residents Anthony Hong and Danny Kim, claims that its planned project will reduce pollutants in the air and land while also cutting the amount of waste going into Oahu’s municipal landfill, as compared with H-POWER.

The company also has told lawmakers that an initial phase of its planned project would supplement H-POWER by focusing on recycled waste, medical waste and other waste that is exported. In later phases, Next Level said it could process waste into building materials, hydrogen, biodiesel and other byproducts.

House Bill 1682, which would authorize issuance of an unspecified sum of revenue bonds for Next Level, has been passed by two House committees, the House of Representatives in a 45-2 vote and, most recently, three Senate committees.

A few environmental groups that oppose burning more waste have testified against the authorization.

Ted Bohlen of Climate Protectors Hawai‘i said in written testimony that waste buried in landfills can produce the harmful greenhouse gas methane and that turning waste into electricity instead can also generate carbon and other greenhouse gases that pollute the atmosphere.

“It is not clear whether the project would be in the public interest,” he said. “Being better than H-POWER doesn’t necessarily mean a project is in the public interest. Whether this project will benefit or harm the climate should be determined by a careful lifecycle greenhouse gas analysis.”

Nicole Chatterson, executive director of Zero Waste O‘ahu, noted in written testimony that a recently completed 10-year city waste management strategy prioritizes waste reduction.

“This measure does not further that priority and is out of step with the priorities of the county and of residents living here,” she said. “Creating more waste-to-­energy infrastructure will not help us reduce the amount of waste we have to manage, it will likely encourage and exacerbate waste production.”

Though city officials have not testified on the bill, Markus Owens, public information officer for the city Department of Environmental Services, said H-POWER is receiving about everything on the island that can be burned.

H-POWER consumes about 2,000 tons of waste per day and reduces the volume of refuse going to the municipal landfill in Kapolei by 90%, according to the city. Electricity produced by the plant generates about $70 million a year and is enough to power about 60,000 homes, or up to 10% of Oahu’s total demand.

Next Level representatives did not respond to multiple requests for more information about its plans, including the potential size, location and timing of an envisioned facility.

In testimony at the Legislature, Hong said Next Level’s planned project would reduce a “tremendous” amount of waste going to the landfill, and he explained that the company has a license to use technology from South Korean company Hwa Seong B &Tec.

Hwa Seong, in a January promotional video, claims to have spent 13 years developing its technology, which includes what it calls the Cyclone Combuster. The company described a goal to establish a large-scale waste conversion factory capable of generating energy sales valued at roughly $325,000 by May and growing into a global enterprise.

In the video, Hwa Seong said its technology can process household waste, industrial waste, medical waste and sewage sludge while expelling one-tenth the amount of carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxides compared with other existing industry technology.

Hwa Seong also said the amount of ash generated from burning waste with its technology is 3% to 5% compared with a more typical 15% to 20%.

H-POWER, which is operated by New Jersey-based Covanta at Campbell Industrial Park, dates back to 1990 but achieves or is in the process of achieving some of the same things as Hwa Seong.

The facility consumes treated medical waste, and in 2015 began accepting sewage sludge. A little over a year ago, the city announced an 11-year contract with Covanta to cut the amount of H-POWER ash going to the landfill by 60%, achieved by treating and recycling it to make concrete, asphalt and other items.

At the Legislature during public hearings on the revenue bond bill for Next Level, there has been scant discussion on specifics or merits of the company’s plan.

One of the few votes against the revenue bond bill was cast by Sen. Laura Acasio (D, Hilo), who tried to research Next Level and found little to go on.

Acasio, a member of the Senate Agriculture and Environment Committee, joined Sen. Kurt Fevella (R, Ewa Beach-­Iroquois Point) as dissenters in a 3-2 vote by the committee on March 21.

“For me, this is not in the public interest,” she said. “Acting in the public interest requires us to drastically reduce the amount of waste we generate instead of becoming reliant on it as a fuel source.”

The Senate Energy, Economic Development and Tourism Committee voted 4-1 at the same hearing to approve HB 1682, and on Tuesday the Senate Ways and Means Committee did the same in an 11-0 vote.

The bill is still subject to a full Senate vote and then consideration again by the House of Representatives.

If the measure is enacted, final bond issuance approval would be up to the state Department of Budget and Finance, which considers matters such as an applicant’s experience, financial condition and ability to pay off bonds bought by investors.