POET announced today that it had reached an agreement with City of Sioux Falls to use methane (landfill gas) generated at the Sioux Falls Regional Sanitary Landfill to offset some of it's natural gas needs at it's Chancellor, SD plant.As the waste in landfills decomposes, methane gas is released. Since methane gas is a pretty potent greenhouse gas the standard practice used to be to flare off the gas. Lately though, landfill gas has been recognized as a energy source that could bring in revenue for municipalities while at the same time allowing the end user to lower their energy costs.
The plant will start using the methane from the landfill during the second quarter of 2009 when a ten mile low pressure pipeline is completed. During the beginning phase of the project methane from the landfill will displace about 10% of the plants energy needs. That amount will increase to 30% in 2025 as the volume of gas produced from the landfill increases.
The Chancellor plant is also noteworthy for the fact that as part of an expansion, a solid waste fuel boiler is being installed that will burn wood wastes to offset more than half of the plants energy needs. The solid waste boiler in conjunction with methane gas will displace about 70% during the first phase rising to around 90% of the plants total energy needs.
2 comments:
WOW! It's like someone read my mind. I drove from Houston to Dallas last weekend and passed some landfills just south of Dallas.
It was dusk and I saw the flame burning at the edge of the landfill. I thought - why not harness that energy.
Glad to see someone else had the same bright idea!
The oil companies flare off quite a bit of gas also.
I guess in some cases the amount of money to be made wouldn't pay for a pipeline to be built to the nearest end user. But even in those cases I have always wondered why they didn't use the gas to produce electricity.
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