Dust Control – Soil Stabilization – Erosion Control

Archive for the ‘gas’ Category

A big, almost invisible, blue flame has been burning for years at Cedar Ridge Landfill where it’s seen more at night as Waste Management continues to dispose of methane, a byproduct of decomposing trash.

Harnessing the energy, however, "is something that’s caught on in a lot of places," according to Ken Haldin, spokesman for Waste Management, the company that owns the landfill west of Lewisburg.

Using the flammable gas for something other than a landfill nightlight is possible, but it’s not attracted a lot of attention here.

"We’ve seen these things coast to coast," Haldin said of two ways the energy in methane is used instead of burned off.

In Heggins, Pa. the Republican Herald of Pottsville, Pa., reports that a "gas-to-energy plant could reach its peak and power 7,000 homes within a year," according to employees at a township landfill.

A number of internal combustion engines run on methane and turn electric power generators.

In East Tennessee, "Chestnut Ridge, is like a mini-TVA power plant with four big CAT generators and a power station," Glenn Youngblood, director of landfill development for Waste Management, said. "The technology has gotten to the point that they change the oil on the run.

"There’s a site in Johnson City," Youngblood continued about a Waste Management operation. "There are companies that buy the gas and they pump it to businesses… for heating of a building… In Memphis at the south Shelby Site there is an industry at the site and they pump the gas to the industry."

And that’s the other use: A combustible gas that can be used in heaters for buildings and manufacturing products, according to Youngblood and Haldin.

"We have a location in North Georgia that provides energy to a neighboring poultry operation," the company spokesman said. "They’re taking as much gas as they can get."

"Our Palmetto Landfill in South Carolina provides gas energy to the BMW plant in Spartenburg," Haldin said. "They have a nine-mile line" to get the gas to the plant.

But, Youngblood said, there are limits.

"Before it starts to make sense it has to be at 1,200 cubic feet per minute flow of methane to burn…

"Cedar Ridge is at 600- to 900 cfm," Youngblood said.

That’s worthwhile "if we are relatively close to an industry that’s needing low Btu (British thermal unit) gas for brick kilns, building heating, or an asphalt plant," Youngblood said.

Asked about a candle factory, since one is under construction now at Lewisburg’s Business Park that’s nearly a mile from the landfill, Younglood replied, "They would potentially be a real candidate for a partnership."

The idea was presented to Monte Mertens, director of operations for Autom, the church supply company that’s established a call center, warehouse and shipping and receiving operations in the Business Park. Autom is also the company that purchased Will & Baumer, a Syracuse, N.Y., candle maker that’s being moved here.

"This is the first I’ve heard of it," Mertens replied about burning methane.

"Wax will be melted with natural gas heat," he said. "That’s the plan now. If there was another option like an environmentally alternative, we’d look at all options."

Pat Morgan, director of the Lewisburg Gas Department, confirmed information from other sources. She said the city utility made natural gas available to the business park.

"Natural Gas had to be out there for it to be a certified business park," Morgan said of the state requirement. "We support that and want the park to grow, and many of the industries that have come in do want natural gas, especially if they do any production at all. That’s one of the first things they look for."

The Gas Department "cut the expense (of extending natural gas pipes to the Business Park) by using our employees to put the lines in," Morgan said. "There was a time line to get it in and if we’d waited for the bid process it would have taken longer."

The gas utility, however, placed its lines along a route that won’t be interrupted by the state’s reconstruction of Mooresville Highway, she said.

City water lines are to be rebuilt by the Tennessee Department of Transportation because of the road’s reconstruction, according to city officials.

"My only concern was the new road coming in," Morgan said. "We actually put a station in along Mooresville Road. "We will not be moving lines at the business park. We consulted the state on that."

Meanwhile, Lewisburg’s Gas Department has "two customers out there" at the Business Park: Autom and U.S. Tank and Cryogenics, Morgan said.

"We’re looking forward to the candle company moving out there," she continued. "They will be using processed gas, natural gat to melt the candle wax.

The natural gas line "was put-in in-time for the first business to open" on Jan. 14, 2008, Morgan said.

"That’s our service area and I can’t see why someone would want to use methane instead of natural gas," she said.

As for availability, Youngblood says the availability of landfill-produced methane depends on the specifics of each landfill.

"There is a bell curve," he said. "Every site is different because of the difference in waste. It gets to a peak production… and then it starts to back off, but the window is a large time frame.

"We have a whole gas department in Houston and all they do is manage gas projects.

"There are costs involved in this … but it’s something less than natural gas and long term landfill gas would be evenly priced," he said, countering market price changes for natural gas.

"For a low Btu business that needs gas for hear – plastic extraction business. For those kinds of businesses, we have enough gas right now.

Nevertheless, the businessmen interviewed for his story were apparently unaware of the possibilities.

Noxious fumes that sent a teacher to the hospital, forced the evacuation of a child development center and had people within a 30-mile radius in southern Greenville County holding their noses Friday morning was traced to a fire at a landfill in Anderson County, officials said.

The state Department of Health and Environmental Control didn’t take any air samples but concluded that there was no danger.

“We don’t have any reason to believe there’s a threat to air quality or public health,” DHEC spokesman Adam Myrick said.

Myrick said officials theorized that fumes from a sewer line breach in Greenville’s Eastside on Thursday may have compounded the problem.

South Greenville Fire Chief Ken Taylor said he traced the smell to the Big Creek landfill near Belton, about 10 miles from the Riley Child Development Center, where a teacher who complained of headache, nausea and burning in the eyes was taken to the hospital.

She was examined as a precaution and released, Greenville County School District spokesman Oby Lyles said.

One child felt ill and was taken home, he said.

Children at the center were moved next door to Ellen Woodside Elementary School, which is on lower ground and where the odor wasn’t as intense, Lyles said.

High humidity kept the bad air close to the ground, the fire chief said. It was mostly gone by noon, after the sun came out and breezes blew in, he said.

Rob Wall, district manager for Anderson Regional Landfill, a private company that operates the Big Creek facility, said the fire “was contained in a controlled area.”

“We worked in conjunction with local and state authorities during the process,” he told The Greenville News . “The cause of the fire is under investigation.”

The odor was first reported around 7:15 a.m. in the Moonville-Pelzer area and later spread to the Woodmont area and then to the Hillcrest High-Bryson Middle School area, Lyles said.

The heating, air-conditioning and ventilation systems in the schools were turned off while the air quality was checked, he said.

Officials first thought the source of the smell was a natural gas leak at Beech Springs Tabernacle in Ware Place, then they investigated a site along Cooley Bridge Road where work was being done on a water line that ran along a gas line.

But those were ruled out, and air tests done by the South Greenville Fire Department and a special team from the Greenville County Fire Department found no natural gas in or around the schools.

Dawn Chapman, whose son, Neal, is a fifth-grader at Ellen Woodside, described the smell as “a very foul, very strong odor.”

“It was enough to give you a headache,” she said. “The whole house, the entire yard smelled like rotten eggs.”

“It was horrible,” her son said.

Lacey Landrum, an employee of a Shell station on U.S. 25 in Ware Place, said customers were covering their noses with their shirts as they pumped gas.

“It was pretty bad,” she said. “The whole store smelled of it.”

Staff writer Nathaniel Cary contributed to this report.

Residents who take their garbage to the dump have a more efficient place to drop it off and reduce the amount going to the landfill.

A new solid waste and recycling facility on Mapleward Road opens today, and features easier access to sorting stations. The new site replaces the John Street location, which officially closed Monday night.

The new site includes paved roads to expanded collection stations, improved signage, a new weigh scale and a new administration centre. The operation is designed to make reducing landfill waste easier than in the past and decrease the amount of hazardous waste and recyclable material buried in the ground.

Once traffic enters the site, vehicles are split into two streams – private and registered commercial.

The private customer – residents dumping their own garbage – drive through the recycling and hazardous waste stations before being weighed at the kiosk. The next stop is the public waste disposal area where they can sort their metals, bulky items, soil or clean fill, clean wood and garbage into large bins. All loads have to be sorted before leaving home to make disposal easier, said landfill supervisor Rick Latta. Vehicles from cars to half-ton trucks can use the private disposal area.

“This makes utilizing the recycling and sorting of household garbage a lot easier because private vehicles won‘t have to drive up the dump face and they only pay upon exiting,” said Latta.

He added that if a private vehicle too big to drive through the scale shows up, staff will let the driver know and help them move their material to the appropriate bins.

Commercial vehicles drive through automated scales and are billed on the way out. Latta said this will improve traffic flow in and out of the site.

“At the John Street location, we had a lot of problems with traffic jams and people waiting in line on the road,” Latta said. “We could get 1,500 cars a day.

“The other problem was vehicles pulling over to drop off recyclables then losing their spot in line for the scales. Here we have a collector loop for overflow so no one has to sit at the side of the road anymore.”

He also pointed to the improved hazardous waste disposal area. There is a shed with padded floors to eliminate the dangers of leaking materials. Residents can get rid of paint, fluorescent bulbs, household cleaners and some computers and electronics. Radios and portable stereos aren‘t accepted.

Large appliances like refrigerators have to be freon-free before they can be accepted.
Construction continues at the site to finish up some details.
Meanwhile, the city has to decide what to do with the John Street site.
“We are still going to use the site for cold storage and come back at a later date to figure out what to do with the site,” said Pat Mauro, manager of the city‘s engineering department.
The landfill itself remains. Mauro said the site is moving eastward and he estimated it had a 200-year lifespan. The city has approval from the province to use it until 2025.
Rotting garbageto be turned into power

The City of Thunder Bay is hoping to produce something good from rotting garbage.
The city and Thunder Bay Hydro Renewable Power, a subsidiary of Thunder Bay Hydro, is working on a plan to turn methane gas from the city dump into green energy.
The city has to burn methane gas generated by decomposing garbage, said Pat Mauro, manager of the city‘s engineering department.

He said 85 wells will be drilled into the garbage area and piping will be fed through the landfill site. The network of pipes will collect methane gas and feed it into two generators, which will burn it to produce electricity.

“The city has to burn off the gas according to environmental standards,” Mauro said. “So we are entering into a partnership with Thunder Bay Hydro to manage these generators. They can generate electricity from the landfill and we sell it back to Ontario Power Generation and feed it into the existing grid.”

The generators will produce 3.2 megawatts of power annually, said Robert Mace, president of Thunder Bay Hydro.

“That would be enough energy to power 2,000 homes for one year,” Mace said.

MAPLE CITY — A green energy effort is under way at a Leelanau County landfill, a site with a history of pollution problems.

Waste Management is harnessing methane gas to power new technology at its Glen’s Landfill in Maple City, a system that reduces wastewater runoff and the number of trucks on the road. The effort will save the company money and reduce the toll on the environment.

A new system to evaporate leachate — rainwater that runs over garbage — is powered by about half the landfill’s captured gas emissions. The other half is still burned off with flares.

The idea is to reduce leachate by steaming off water and creating a concentrated leachate product that can go back into the landfill to aid garbage decomposition. Leachate formerly was trucked to Frankfort for treatment, so the effort reduces both company costs and the number of heavy trucks on the road, company officials said.

"This internalizes everything," said Jim Palmer, the company’s district manager.

The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality approved the new technology, but did not require it, said Scott Conradson, a senior environmental engineer with the state agency.

The Maple City landfill had two leachate spills in March due to operator error during truck-loading, incidents that brought citations and a nearly $30,000 DEQ fine, Conradson said. The new leachate evaporation system should help prevent future spills, he said.

Palmer agreed.

"That’s the whole problem with trucking stuff," he said. "It’s an upgrade."

The evaporator cost about $2 million, but will stave off leachate transportation and treatment costs. It went online in late June and already processed 1.6 million gallons of leachate.

The landfill generates about 40,000 gallons of leachate daily and about 950 cubic feet of gas per minute, Palmer said.

Waste Management’s new leachate evaporator system is better for the environment, Conradson said, but the effort is spurred by economics and not environmentalism.

"They are in the business to make money and this will save them money," Conradson said. "It’s purely financial."

Conradson said the landfill is well operated under Waste Management, though the site caused groundwater contamination under a previous owner.

Now all 13 Lower Michigan landfills owned by Waste Management use landfill gas to generate energy.