Despite Kermit the Frog’s lament, if you are near a landfill, it’s easier than ever to be green.

By Rachel Goldstein

You might ask yourself: What does a landfill have to do with being green? The answer is easy. A landfill can provide a valuable, lower-cost supply of green-energy LFG. Moreover, utilizing the LFG as energy has environmental benefits and saves money as a lower cost fuel. Corporations large and small are increasingly recognizing LFG for its many green benefits.

Background
LFG is the natural byproduct of the decomposition of organic waste in landfills and is composed primarily of methane and carbon dioxide. Methane is the primary component of natural gas, so the LFG represents an opportunity to capture and use a significant energy resource. Instead of allowing LFG to escape into the air, it can be captured, converted, and used as an energy source. Using LFG has multiple benefits, such as reducing odors and other hazards associated with LFG emissions, and preventing methane from migrating into the atmosphere and contributing to local smog and global climate change. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas, about 21 times more potent than carbon dioxide.

The EPA’s Landfill Methane Outreach Program (LMOP) has seen a dramatic increase in projects over the past 10 years. By mid-2005, there were 380 projects online. While this number is impressive, we still have a long way to go. According to the LMOP database, there are still at least 600 landfills that could economically support a project. These 600 landfills would have a generation capacity of over 1,400 MW or could supply 356 billion cubic feet per year of gas to industrial end users. LMOP is a voluntary assistance program that helps to reduce methane emissions from landfills by encouraging the recovery and use of LFG as an energy resource.

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Corporate and Industrial Market Drivers for LFG
In the past two years,  LMOP has seen a surge of interest in the direct use of LFG, primarily by corporate and industrial end users. The interest is fueled by both economic and environmental factors. Energy costs have been rising, and energy markets are becoming increasingly more volatile, according to WTRG Economics (http://www.wtrg.com/daily/gasprice.html). (See Figure 1.)

At the time of this writing, the Henry Hub and NYMEX indicators showed the price of natural gas at over $13 MMBtu. In addition the aftershocks of hurricanes Katrina and Rita are showing just how vulnerable our energy infrastructure is. Higher prices and possible supply interruptions not only encourage energy users to look for less expensive sources, but the high prices make the project economics more attractive. A perfect example is that high energy prices are making longer pipeline projects not only possible, but profitable. Five years ago, a pipeline project was generally thought to be economically feasible at 5 miles or less. In 2003, however, BMW developed an LFG project that involved the construction of a 10-mile pipeline. In 2004, the Honeywell LFG project came online with a 23-mile pipeline, the longest in the US. These projects also help companies give back to the community. The Honeywell project provided jobs and revenue to the local town. For example, building the pipeline resulted in 22,000 hotel stays in Hopewell, VA. A direct-use project at the Lanchester Landfill in Pennsylvania estimates local economic benefits to include over 100 temporary construction jobs with local contractors and other businesses for pipeline construction, gas processing-facility construction, and boiler modifications.

In the past year, LMOP received over 20 requests from companies to look for landfills to help offset high fuel costs and meet environmental commitments. More interesting, LMOP received several requests from companies seeking to locate a new facility near a suitable landfill. In March 2005, the Birmingham Business Journal reported that one of the top three factors Jenkins Brick Co. used when selecting a site for a new facility was “proximity to ... landfill gas that the company recycles into energy.”

Corporations are realizing significant savings on their energy costs when they use LFG. As reported in Fortune magazine in February 2005, General Motors is the largest industrial user of LFG. The company uses LFG as a direct fuel in five of its manufacturing plants, saving over $500,000 at each plant per year. Another auto manufacturer, BMW Manufacturing, notes that it saves over $1 million per year at its South Carolina plant alone, where it uses LFG to generate electricity and capture waste heat from the turbines.

The economic benefits are certainly a powerful motivator, but environmental stewardship and corporate social responsibility are also strong market drivers for LFG projects. Good corporate citizens are joining voluntary programs for greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions such as the EPA’s Climate Leaders program and the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX). Climate Leaders is a voluntary EPA industry-government partnership that works with companies to develop long-term comprehensive climate change strategies. Partners set a corporate-wide GHG reduction goal and inventory their emissions to measure progress. The CCX is a GHG emission reduction and trading pilot program for emission sources and offset projects in the US, Canada, and Mexico. The good corporate citizens are looking at LFG projects as a way of meeting their voluntary commitments. For example, General Motors, Interface, and SC Johnson have utilized LFG projects to help meet their EPA Climate Leaders GHG reduction goals.

Good corporate citizens are also purchasing renewable energy credits (RECs) from LFG projects that generate electricity. Through power and energy programs, such as the EPA’s Green Power Partnership or the World Resources Institute’s Green Power Market Development Group, a company can buy and trade the renewable attribute of electricity generation from a renewable source, helping to meet renewable energy goals and offset fossil fuel use. Companies like Staples, Dupont, and Pitney Bowes have all purchased RECs from LFG. Utilities, such as Cinergy, Exelon, and WE Energies, are using LFG in their renewable energy portfolios.

In addition to the electricity and direct use projects discussed, there are demonstration projects pushing the boundaries of traditional thought on LFG energy projects. Natural gas isn’t the only energy input that is increasing in price. We are seeing over $63 per barrel for oil, and $3 per gallon of diesel. Just as corporations are looking to alternative fuels for their manufacturing facilities, companies with fleet operations are looking at alternative fuels for their vehicles. And again, the higher energy prices are making the economics much more attractive.

For example, an innovative use for LFG is vehicle fuel. In Burlington County, NJ, Waste Management collaborated with Mack Truck to run two of its garbage trucks on liquefied natural gas (LNG) produced from LFG. The LFG has the CO2 and non-methane organic compounds (NMOCs) removed. The resulting LNG is used to fuel a natural gas rather than diesel engine on the trucks. In California, the Puente Hills Landfill utilizes LFG to make compressed natural gas (CNG) to run county vehicles. There are five LFG-to-vehicle-fuel projects in the planning stages.

In Ohio, there is a project under development that will produce methanol from LFG, the methanol will be used as a component to make biodiesel. Large-scale greenhouses are looking at LFG as a fuel, as are ethanol production facilities. The industry has made great strides in finding innovative ways to use the LFG to provide both environmental and economic benefits. LMOP certainly sees that trend continuing into the future.

Is There an LFG-to-EnergyProject in Your Future?
Are you convinced that you can be green and save green simultaneously? Don’t know where to start? LMOP has a number of tools that can help determine if there is an LFG energy project in your future. LMOP offers technical support that includes finding a landfill, and estimating gas generation and project economic analysis.

The first step is as simple as providing the manufacturing plant address. From there, LMOP can search on a 5-, 10-, 15-, or 20-mile radius to find the landfills near the facility. If you are a landfill searching for an end user, we can help find potential end users in the same radius. From here, LMOP can model the gas generation using the EPA’s LandGEM software.

We can compare the results to an end user’s energy demand and see if there is a good match. LMOP, via our cost analysis tool, LFGCost, can determine if a project might be a good investment. The cost tool will provide economic data such as net present value, internal rate of return, and years to payback. In addition, the tool will estimate environmental benefits such as total amount of methane destroyed and the overall greenhouse gas emissions reductions.

Using LFG for energy is a win/win opportunity. LFG energy projects involve citizens, nonprofit organizations, local governments, and industry in sustainable community planning and creative partnerships. These projects go hand-in-hand with community and corporate commitments to cleaner air, renewable energy, economic development, improved public welfare and safety, and reductions in greenhouse (global warming) gases.

By linking communities with innovative ways to deal with their LFG, LMOP contributes to the creation of livable communities that enjoy increased environmental protection, better waste management, and responsible community planning.

Three LFG-to-energy projects located in South Carolina and Indiana are indicators of just how effective these programs can be.

BMW Manufacturing—Greer, SC
How many people would imagine that LFG had a hand in the creation of the BMW Roadster? At its South Carolina assembly plant, BMW uses gas from Waste Management’s Palmetto Landfill to fuel four gas turbine cogeneration units (4.8-MW capacity) and recovers 72 MBtu per hour of hot water. The turbines fulfill about 25% of the plant’s electrical needs and nearly all of its thermal needs.

The project’s highlights include:

• Successful collaboration among LMOP Partners Ameresco, BMW, Waste Management, and the South Carolina Energy Office, and other state and local agencies.
• A 9.5-mile pipeline crosses a river, two creeks, an interstate, and BMW’s test track, delivering about 4,000 scfm of filtered and dehydrated LFG.
• Protection from rising and fluctuating natural gas prices over a 20-year contract.
• According to BMW, a reduction of carbon dioxide emissions equivalent to driving 105 million miles per year, or more than 4,000 times around the earth.
• LMOP Project of the Year in 2003.

GM Truck Assembly Plant—Fort Wayne, IN
General Motors continued its commitment to reducing total energy usage by 25% when it launched its third LFG energy project—this one at its Fort Wayne assembly plant. “Landfill gas is a clean-burning fuel and makes a perfect power source for the plant’s boilers,” says Dave Shenefield, site utilities manager at the Fort Wayne plant, where 3,000 employees crank out GM Sierras and Chevy Silverados. Boilers firing LFG produce steam to heat and cool the assembly plant and run process equipment.

The project’s highlights include:

• 450,000 MBtu per year.
• 8-mile pipeline delivers LFG from Macbeth Road Landfill.
• * LFG supplies about 16% of the plant’s energy needs, saving $500,000 annually.
• Positive public reaction.
• LMOP Industry Partner of the Year awarded to GM in 2003.

General Motors, National Serv-All, and Toro Energy LLC, of Dallas, developed the project in a true partnership. Toro installed the pipeline used to deliver the methane gas from Serv-All’s MacBeth Road Landfill to the plant. To burn the methane, Toro also modified a boiler at the plant. Serv-All installed the wells and the collection system necessary to capture the methane.

Rolls Royce/Granger—Indianapolis, IN
When you hear Rolls-Royce, you think of excellence in luxury cars. But worldwide, the company also strives for excellence in environmental, health, and safety standards, while upholding its values of reliability, integrity, and innovation. As part of its early and ongoing commitment to the environment, Rolls-Royce partnered with Granger Energy, LLC, recipient of LMOP’s Industry Partner of the Year in 2001.

Granger approached Rolls-Royce about using surplus LFG from the South Side Landfill to fuel the manufacturing plant. In 1999, Rolls-Royce signed a partnership agreement with Granger, the project developer, gas lessor, and project co-owner. Granger supplies LFG to the boilers, which produce steam to support the company’s aircraft engine manufacturing operation.

Granger and Rolls-Royce’s success includes the following:

• Since 1989, Granger has provided LFG to the six-acre Crossroads Greenhouse, the site of Indiana’s first LFG energy project;
• In 1999, Rolls-Royce converted three boilers to burn LFG;
• In 2000, Rolls-Royce received the Indiana Governor’s Award for Excellence in Pollution Prevention; and
• In 2001, Rolls-Royce modified a 5-MW turbine, which generates electricity for onsite use.

Rachel Goldstein is program manager for the EPA’s Landfill Methane Outreach Program.

MSW - January/February 2006