MSW Management | Landfill Methane Partners and Projects Receive EPA Awards

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New and exciting uses for landfill gas continue to surface.

By Brian Guzzone, Rachel Goldstein, and Joe Fanjoy

At the US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) 10th Annual Landfill Methane Outreach Program (LMOP) Conference and Project Expo held this January in Baltimore, the EPA recognized its LMOP Partners for their excellence in landfill-gas-to-energy (LFGTE) project innovation and creativity, their success in promoting LFGTE project development, and the environmental and economic benefits achieved by their projects.

LMOP is a voluntary technical assistance and partnership program that helps businesses and communities reduce methane emissions from landfills by encouraging the recovery and use of landfill gas as a renewable energy resource. “Across the nation, the EPA is helping transform landfill waste into energy wealth,” writes Bill Wehrum, acting assistant administrator for the EPA’s Office of Air and Radiation in a January 24, 2007, press release. “We are recognizing Partners who have demonstrated superior innovation and environmental achievement in advancing landfill-gas-to-energy projects.” The 2006 LMOP award winners include LFGTE projects that are helping to reduce the nation’s dependence on fossil fuels, proving the viability of landfill gas as an alternative energy source, and helping to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases.

LMOP Project of the Year: Fueling the Local Economy
The Board of Commissioners for Jackson County, NC, gave the county’s economy a boost by creating the Jackson County Green Energy Park, where landfill gas helps produce biodiesel made from rapeseed grown by local farmers. The gas also provides process heat for a craft center that includes pottery and glass-blowing studios, blacksmith forges, and other uses. “When using local tax dollars to finance a project, you have to find out what works in your community,” says Timm Muth, project manager for Jackson County. “You can’t build a craft facility anywhere; but here in Jackson County, tourism and recreation are the major industries.”

Every minute, 40 cubic feet of landfill gas flow from the Jackson County Landfill to the Jackson County Green Energy Park. The park is believed to be the first site in the world to use landfill gas to fire a blacksmith forge. Using hot water from a landfill-gas-fired boiler, Smoky Mountain Biofuels makes biodiesel from rapeseed and from vegetable oil recovered from restaurants. Smoky Mountain Biofuels plans to produce over 1 million gallons of biodiesel in its first year—some of which is sold to Great Smoky Mountains National Park as vehicle fuel for the National Park Service. Heat exchangers mounted on the neighboring blacksmith forges recover enough waste heat to leave the biodiesel refinery with a near-zero energy footprint. Future plans include pottery and glass-blowing studios, retail space, a botanical drying facility, and a greenhouse where the county will grow and propagate landscape plants for county properties.

LMOP Project of the Year: A Unique Partnership
In Pennsylvania, the Lancaster County Solid Waste Management Authority is committed to renewable energy, and LMOP recognized the authority’s 3.2-MW LFGTE project as an LMOP Project of the Year. The project involved a unique partnership of the county, the PPL Corp., and Turkey Hill Dairy.

The authority voluntarily installed 20,000 feet of piping to tie together the collection systems of the co-located Creswell and Frey Farm landfills. The authority sells the gas to PPL Energy Services, which operates an electricity plant that uses Caterpillar engines to generate enough green electricity to power 2,000 homes. Waste heat from the engine exhaust is recovered to produce steam used in the adjacent Turkey Hill Dairy, a producer of ice cream, milk, and tea products. By using steam generated by this combined heat-and-power project, Turkey Hill has reduced the use of diesel fuel in its boilers by 80%, achieving fuel-cost savings and environmental benefits.

The project is helping the county meet its commitment to voluntarily reduce overall greenhouse gas emissions from county solid waste management operations by 6% by 2010. The authority is also the first public environmental services organization to join the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX), and it sells carbon dioxide offset credits generated by the methane reduction achieved by the landfill gas energy project on the CCX. By selling up to 80,000 metric tons of carbon-dioxide emission offset credits, Lancaster County anticipates up to $300,000 per year in revenues.

LMOP Project of the Year: Persistence Is the Key
Another innovative project was completed in record time despite hurdles the project partners faced in the wakes of Hurricanes Rita and Katrina. Renovar, the project developer, sells 1,820 cubic feet per minute of landfill gas collected from the Jefferson Parish Landfill to the West Paterson, NJ–based Cytec Industries, which uses it as the fuel for a process air preheater in a sulfuric-acid regeneration plant. Cytec now has an affordable, reliable, and predictable energy source at a cost savings compared to the market price of natural gas on a per-million-Btu basis. This reduced cost enabled Cytec to offset the cost required to make retrofits to its duct work, gas burners, and control systems in order to utilize landfill gas.

“Perseverance was the key to this project,” says Larry Gilbert, cofounder of Renovar Energy Corp. in Midland, TX, referring to the enormous challenges presented after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Project construction was due to begin the day after Hurricane Katrina struck the region. Project partners faced impassable streets, no commercial power, gas leaks, and floodwaters, while utilities, workers, and available materials were focused on cleanup and recovery. Despite these daunting obstacles, the project team, led by Renovar, came together to complete the job as planned.

“The current energy crisis is very real to us at Cytec,” says Greg Deis of Cytec. “The price of pre-Katrina energy had already resulted in the shutdown of two of our major production units. Burning landfill gas was the chance to take an untapped energy resource in our backyard and do something significant to push back on the cost of energy.” Cytec celebrated the project’s completion during a February 2006 ribbon-cutting ceremony.

LMOP Project of the Year: Tapping Landfill Gas
In what is believed to be a first in landfill gas energy history, a major US manufacturer—Jenkins Brick Co.—has located a plant near a landfill for the specific purpose of tapping the valuable landfill gas.

Jenkins Brick has been using clean-burning landfill gas to fuel its Montgomery, AL, brick plant since 1998. Based on the success of this first project, Jenkins decided to site its new plant at a location where it would once again be possible to take advantage of local landfill gas. The new project captures 600 cubic feet per minute of landfill gas from Veolia Environmental Services’ Star Ridge Landfill and transports it via a 6.5-mile underground pipeline to Jenkins Brick’s new $56 million, state-of-the-art, brick-manufacturing plant in Moody, AL. There, the landfill gas is used as fuel in brick kilns. The new facility is expected to create approximately 55 new jobs. Although incorporating the landfill gas capability to the new plant added $4 million to its capital cost, the company expects to realize significant savings in fuel costs as a result.

“Our years-long cooperation with EPA’s LMOP program has provided us with valuable technical expertise as we identify ways to save money—and the environment,” writes Mike Jenkins IV, chief executive officer of Jenkins Brick Co., in an EPA news release from October 2006. “In building this innovative facility, our American-owned company shows that it is much more than a brick manufacturer and distributor.”

LMOP Community Partner of the Year
When Atlanta residents and businesses purchase green power, they can thank DeKalb County, GA, for hard work and persistence. The county owns two Caterpillar engines that burn landfill gas from the Seminole Road Landfill to produce electricity that is sold to Georgia Power. The project generates a minimum of 22,500 MWh per year of electricity, enough to power 3,000 homes.

Development of this project required detailed planning and many meetings with county officials and the community to educate them about the benefits of LFGTE projects and alleviate potential concerns. For several years, county solid waste officials pursued the vision of generating green energy in the county using landfill gas. Billy Malone, an assistant director with the county sanitation division, says he was inspired by the energy, excitement, and available resources he discovered at the 2000 LMOP Conference in Washington, DC. “LMOP was instrumental in encouraging me to move forward with a landfill-gas-to-energy project,” says Malone. “LMOP provides a communication network that is invaluable in assisting small communities like DeKalb County in promoting the development and benefits of green energy projects.”

Working under limited budgets but armed with persistence, county solid waste officials took on roles usually reserved for project developers. They negotiated a power purchase agreement and successfully obtained construction and operating air permits and procured a design/build/operate contract. Once approvals were obtained, project construction was completed in just seven months.

LMOP Energy End User Partner of the Year
For BMW Manufacturing Co., one LMOP award-winning landfill gas energy project was not enough. With excess landfill gas available and a continued desire to go green, BMW focused its attention on the largest consumer of energy in its Spartanburg, SC–based assembly plant: the paint shop. Working with Dürr Systems, the shop’s original designer, BMW converted paint shop equipment to burn landfill gas. In so doing, the facility became the world’s first automotive paint shop to integrate the use of landfill gas in such a creative, energy-saving application. This effort earned BMW Manufacturing Co. recognition as LMOP’s 2006 Energy End User Partner of the Year.

Today, landfill gas fulfills nearly 70% of the plant’s energy requirements, insulating the company from rising and fluctuating natural gas prices. Four turbines generate 4.4 MW, a quarter of the plant’s electricity needs, while supplying hot water and much of its heating and cooling needs. The paint shop uses 800 cubic feet per minute of landfill gas in 19 of its 23 oven burners, exceeding original estimates of overall savings and volume of landfill gas used.

Landfill gas is a key component of BMW’s corporate commitment to sustainability. BMW bases its decisions on social and ecological considerations as well as environmental ones. “Using methane gas generated from the nearby landfill to power the factory is an excellent example of sustainability,” says Briggs Hamilton, environmental services manager at BMW Manufacturing. “The project allows us to take a previously wasted energy source and use it to generate electricity, which protects the environment and our community through lower emissions.”

LMOP Energy Provider Partner of the Year
With a demonstrated commitment to environmental stewardship, Murray City Power (MCP) in Murray, UT, is continually seeking new environmental opportunities. MCP responded to a proposal from the Salt Lake City/County Landfill Gas Recovery Project and aggressively pursued the entire 3-MW capacity. LMOP named MCP the 2006 Energy Provider Partner of the Year in recognition of its creativity and success.

“Tenacity was the key,” says Gary Merrill, general manager of MCP. “This project took a personal and organizational commitment to be good environmental stewards. The landfill-gas-to-energy project is valuable for the community and greater Salt Lake area.”

A disappointing initial cost/benefit analysis and a unanimous “no” vote by the City Council sent MCP back to the drawing board. To make the project work economically, MCP developed a creative time-of-use pricing mechanism that proved to be a winner for all parties. The pricing profile establishes seasonal pricing with on-peak and off-peak hour components so that the project’s power-supply costs parallel daily and seasonal market pricing, even though the power is delivered on a flat 24-hour, seven-day, year-round basis. The pricing profile achieves financial thresholds for the facility owner, while providing pricing and cash-flow advantages to MCP.

LMOP State Partner of the Year
Already a leader in economically sustainable solid waste management practices, the Delaware Solid Waste Authority (DSWA) also leads the way in environmental sustainability. As early as 1995, DSWA demonstrated its commitment to excellence in solid waste management when it began collecting landfill gas and selling it for electricity generation. With the addition of two new landfill gas electricity projects, every municipal solid waste landfill in Delaware managed by DSWA now has an LFGTE project. Such leadership earned DSWA LMOP’s State Partner of the Year in 1999 and again in 2006.

In 2006, DSWA brought two LFGTE projects online that generate a combined 7.4 MW—enough to meet the annual power needs of over 4,500 homes. Project developer Ameresco Inc. of Framingham, MA, owns and operates the electrical generating facilities at two DSWA landfills in Kent and Sussex Counties, which include seven GE Jenbacher engines designed to burn landfill gas. The Baltimore-based Constellation Energy Group Inc. signed a contract with DSWA to purchase the power for 10 years. Through this purchase, Constellation is working to achieve the Delaware renewable portfolio standard, which requires power providers to derive 10% of their power from renewable resources by 2019.

“Landfill-gas-to-energy projects are shining examples of how the public and private sectors can come together and make something great happen,” says DSWA Chief Executive Officer Pat Canzano, who emphasizes the valuable role of LMOP in bringing together project partners. “There’s a tremendous synergy between LMOP and the public and private sectors.”

LMOP is pleased to honor its Partners and their achievements each year with LMOP Awards. In the face of fluctuating and volatile energy prices, hundreds of businesses and communities across America are seeing the benefits of LFGTE.

Beyond the environmental gains of reducing greenhouse gases and air pollutants, businesses and communities are realizing millions of dollars in cost savings by offsetting fossil fuel purchases. With hundreds of landfills still untapped, LMOP has assisted a growing number of companies and governments across the nation in assessing project opportunities. To encourage the use of landfill gas, LMOP provides software tools, marketing assistance, access to technical experts, and tailored technical services to facilitate development of LFGTE projects. Specifically LMOP works to

assess landfills that are viable candidates for project development;
estimate energy potential from landfills and match the supply to end-user demand;
conduct preliminary feasibility studies for LFGTE projects;
facilitate the location of corporate/industrial facilities adjacent to candidate landfills;
provide technical expertise in the use of landfill gas in boilers and other thermal applications;
promote the environmental and economic benefits of LFGTE projects.

Brian Guzzone and Rachel Goldstein are with EPA’s Landfill Methane Outreach Program in Washington, DC. Joe Fanjoy is a technical writer for Eastern Research Group at Research Triangle Park in Raleigh, NC.

MSW - May/June 2007