Everything I have read on Energy and Alternatives to Oil is that the return on investment of alternative froms never comes close to Oil. And I mean on the actual energy invested to get more energy.
From what I read, oil is 4:1 return on investment. Invest one unit of energy and you get four back. The Best any of the present froms of alternative fuels is offering so far is a 2:1 R.O.I.
However if a system can be put into place that rescues wasted energy (stuff that is sent to landfills and such) then I would surmise the system would work. That is "IF" it can be done so to be competitive financially. However I fear it will be setup as a feel/good Congressional endless moneyhole.
I think this is likely. Similar things happened with SUNY's process for hybrid willows as fuel for power plants: The process was for ~twenty years a research project for several Ag (forestry?) professors, untill a jump in fuel prices suddenly made growing willows on marginal cropland seem like a profitable proposition, and private entities took up what the good professors had been working on for years. In New England they burn so much wood for Electricity that the price of pulpwood tracks the price of coal.(~equal in terms of $per BTU)