There's treasure in the ground
by Kellen Moore
The Watauga County Solid Waste and Recycling department is turning trash into cash.
In four to six weeks, a long-awaited system will become operational that converts the methane gas created from decomposing trash into electricity.
Coupled with recent favorable changes in recycling efforts, the department's programs make it one of the few bright spots in an otherwise dismal county budget year.
"All that energy is just being burned off right now and not being used for anything," recycling manager Lisa Doty said of the current methane system. "We'll actually be making money back from the energy sale."
The methane project
Although it was not full, the county landfill closed in 1994 because it does not contain a liner that new laws required. Watauga County's trash now goes to Foothills Environmental Landfill in Caldwell County.
When the landfill closed, a methane capture system was put into the site, and a flare would occasionally light when the gas built up enough to burn, Doty said.
In 2005, an active collection system was added that included 22 collection wells and a fan, allowing the gas to burn continuously from a blower flare since then.
"We've been doing the right thing with it, but there is a lot of energy just being burned off," Doty said.
The department partnered with the ASU Energy Center to look for ways to make use of that untapped resource.
Two 100-kilowatt engines were purchased at a cost of about $80,000 that will convert the methane to electricity that can be used to power the buildings and machines at the landfill site.
The system is expected to produce about 800 to 1000 megawatt-hours of electricity a year, enough to power about 25 homes, said Jason Hoyle, research analyst with the ASU Energy Center.
Any power not used on site will be sold to Blue Ridge Electric and flow back into the grid.
Although the landfill will emit methane for 100 years or more, it will only produce enough to power the system for about 10 years, he said.
The site will still need to pull additional electricity at times to power its energy-hogging baler, which compresses recyclables into neat blocks.
A switch gear to connect the system to the electricity grid will be installed in the coming weeks to complete the project.
The county has invested about $207,000 in the project, Hoyle said.
In the system's second phase, the heat put off by the engines will be pumped into an adjoining building to operate a vehicle wash bay and to heat the rooms.
Additionally, the waste and recycling staff and the Energy Center aren't done scheming. They are now looking for ways to clean the methane gas, which would make the engines more efficient and therefore more productive.
They may also be able to sell Renewable Energy Certificates the project earns to N.C. Green Power, further increasing the revenue potential.
Reclaiming recycling
Up until last month, the landfill also had to pay other companies to recycle old electronics, such as televisions, computers and phones.
The landfill was paying about $1,500 roughly four times a year to haul off the electronics, Doty said.
A change in state law put the cost burden onto electronics manufacturers for the products' disposal instead.
Now, the landfill will get back roughly $6,000 a year from the state and will not have to pay a recycling company, creating roughly $12,000 a year from the savings and new income, Doty said.
The department also received a grant of about $11,000 from the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources last year to handle its own glass collection, which started in August 2010. The county matched 20 percent.
Before the grant-funded glass bunkers were installed, solid waste/recycling sent all its glass to GDS, a private contractor in Boone.
It wasn't getting any income, and the wear and tear on the machinery to deal with glass was substantial, Doty said.
The landfill now receives about $20 per ton of brown glass and $30 per ton of clear glass. Green glass is taken away at no cost and no profit.
Another nearly $21,000 grant from DENR allowed the county to expand recycling programs in the schools, with assistance from a 10 percent match from both the county and the school system.
With the recycling changes being hammered out and the methane project nearing completion, Doty is looking forward to the next steps.
"Once we get this up and running, my next goal is to try for some shingle recycling," she said, adding that shingles can often be repurposed into asphalt.
Looking forward
The methane to electricity system is a pilot project, one that Doty said she hopes can be replicated by other small landfills.
When it is finished, the Watauga County site will include space for others considering such a system to bring their equipment and test it using Watauga's infrastructure.
She said the project couldn't have been done without each group that was involved, particularly the Energy Center, whose proximity to the landfill made the partnership an excellent fit.
"It's a perfect location to do something like this," Doty said.
In four to six weeks, a long-awaited system will become operational that converts the methane gas created from decomposing trash into electricity.
Coupled with recent favorable changes in recycling efforts, the department's programs make it one of the few bright spots in an otherwise dismal county budget year.
"All that energy is just being burned off right now and not being used for anything," recycling manager Lisa Doty said of the current methane system. "We'll actually be making money back from the energy sale."
The methane project
Although it was not full, the county landfill closed in 1994 because it does not contain a liner that new laws required. Watauga County's trash now goes to Foothills Environmental Landfill in Caldwell County.
When the landfill closed, a methane capture system was put into the site, and a flare would occasionally light when the gas built up enough to burn, Doty said.
In 2005, an active collection system was added that included 22 collection wells and a fan, allowing the gas to burn continuously from a blower flare since then.
"We've been doing the right thing with it, but there is a lot of energy just being burned off," Doty said.
The department partnered with the ASU Energy Center to look for ways to make use of that untapped resource.
Two 100-kilowatt engines were purchased at a cost of about $80,000 that will convert the methane to electricity that can be used to power the buildings and machines at the landfill site.
The system is expected to produce about 800 to 1000 megawatt-hours of electricity a year, enough to power about 25 homes, said Jason Hoyle, research analyst with the ASU Energy Center.
Any power not used on site will be sold to Blue Ridge Electric and flow back into the grid.
Although the landfill will emit methane for 100 years or more, it will only produce enough to power the system for about 10 years, he said.
The site will still need to pull additional electricity at times to power its energy-hogging baler, which compresses recyclables into neat blocks.
A switch gear to connect the system to the electricity grid will be installed in the coming weeks to complete the project.
The county has invested about $207,000 in the project, Hoyle said.
In the system's second phase, the heat put off by the engines will be pumped into an adjoining building to operate a vehicle wash bay and to heat the rooms.
Additionally, the waste and recycling staff and the Energy Center aren't done scheming. They are now looking for ways to clean the methane gas, which would make the engines more efficient and therefore more productive.
They may also be able to sell Renewable Energy Certificates the project earns to N.C. Green Power, further increasing the revenue potential.
Reclaiming recycling
Up until last month, the landfill also had to pay other companies to recycle old electronics, such as televisions, computers and phones.
The landfill was paying about $1,500 roughly four times a year to haul off the electronics, Doty said.
A change in state law put the cost burden onto electronics manufacturers for the products' disposal instead.
Now, the landfill will get back roughly $6,000 a year from the state and will not have to pay a recycling company, creating roughly $12,000 a year from the savings and new income, Doty said.
The department also received a grant of about $11,000 from the N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources last year to handle its own glass collection, which started in August 2010. The county matched 20 percent.
Before the grant-funded glass bunkers were installed, solid waste/recycling sent all its glass to GDS, a private contractor in Boone.
It wasn't getting any income, and the wear and tear on the machinery to deal with glass was substantial, Doty said.
The landfill now receives about $20 per ton of brown glass and $30 per ton of clear glass. Green glass is taken away at no cost and no profit.
Another nearly $21,000 grant from DENR allowed the county to expand recycling programs in the schools, with assistance from a 10 percent match from both the county and the school system.
With the recycling changes being hammered out and the methane project nearing completion, Doty is looking forward to the next steps.
"Once we get this up and running, my next goal is to try for some shingle recycling," she said, adding that shingles can often be repurposed into asphalt.
Looking forward
The methane to electricity system is a pilot project, one that Doty said she hopes can be replicated by other small landfills.
When it is finished, the Watauga County site will include space for others considering such a system to bring their equipment and test it using Watauga's infrastructure.
She said the project couldn't have been done without each group that was involved, particularly the Energy Center, whose proximity to the landfill made the partnership an excellent fit.
"It's a perfect location to do something like this," Doty said.