Raytheon to Use Green Power from McKinney Landfill for North Texas Sites

Raytheon Company has contracted renewable energy from a landfill electricity-generation project in McKinney, Texas, as part of the company's commitment to sustain the environment.

Raytheon is acquiring the power through Noble Americas Energy Solutions LLC from Montauk Energy's McKinney landfill gas-to-energy facility. The landfill is part of the North Texas Municipal Water District.

"Five Raytheon north Texas sites will benefit from the green power supplied by the project," said Mike Allgeier, vice president, Raytheon Network Centric Systems, and Raytheon north Texas regional site executive. "This reflects our corporate responsibility and is just one example of Raytheon's sustainability efforts to engage with the community to conserve energy and natural resources."

Raytheon will receive Green-e certified renewable energy credits as part of this agreement. The contract also supports the company's 2015 goal to reduce its greenhouse gases by 10 percent from a 2008 baseline.

Methane gas, a natural by-product of landfill decomposition, will power generators to commercially supply electricity. The landfill project broke ground December 2010 and is on track to provide Raytheon north Texas sites with green power by the second half of this year.

New Energy Capital Announces Groundbreaking of San Diego Wastewater Treatment Gas Clean-up Project

The New Energy Capital Cleantech Infrastructure Fund (NECCIF) today held a formal groundbreaking ceremony for the Trident BioFuels Energy gas processing facility at the Point Loma Wastewater Treatment Plant in San Diego County, California. The facility will process biogas received from wastewater treatment digesters, removing contaminants and moisture and creating clean renewable methane which will be injected into a natural gas pipeline system operated by San Diego Gas & Electric Company.

"The biogas clean-up processing facility will be the first in the State of California to inject treated biogas into the utility gas distribution system since the Public Utility Commission authorized the concept in late 2009. This project will pave the way for similar future applications," said Frank Mazanec of BioFuels Energy LLC, the project developer. The raw biogas produced as a bi-product of the wastewater treatment process is currently burned in the atmosphere. The project will eliminate millions of tons of carbon, nitrogen and sulfur oxides to help Southern California meet stringent air quality targets. Furthermore, the clean biogas will replace non-renewable natural gas in the SDG&E system, helping to reduce the region’s dependence on fossil fuels.

"The citizens of San Diego will benefit from this project as we protect our air quality while also generating revenue for the City," said Jerry Sanders Mayor of the City of San Diego. "This is yet more proof that San Diego is leading the charge in the exciting world of clean energy technology."

Initial foundations for the project were set in December 2010, and the project is expected to be operational in October 2011. The designer and general contractor is SCS, Inc. of Long Beach, California, an industry leader in biogas technology and plant construction. The facility will deploy state-of-the-art gas clean-up technology produced by Air Liquide, a world leader in gas processing systems. The project is supported by the sale of pollution control bonds authorized by the California Pollution Control Finance Authority, and will create approximately 15 full-time construction jobs for pipefitters, electrical workers and construction labor. Ken Frisbie of BioFuels Energy noted that: "We are extremely pleased that New Energy Capital has stepped forward to finance this important pollution control project which will represent one of the largest renewable energy projects within the City of San Diego."

Progress Energy signs contract for first poultry waste-to-biogas plant

Progress Energy Carolinas has signed a contract with Poultry Power USA to purchase the output of a poultry waste-to-biogas energy plant to be located in Montgomery County, N.C. Poultry Power USA will build, own and operate the 36-megawatt (MW) power plant and sell the electricity to the utility for use with its customers.

“Turning poultry litter into power is an important milestone in the development of bio-waste energy resources in our state,” said Lloyd Yates, president and chief executive officer of Progress Energy Carolinas. “Innovative renewable energy technologies, aggressive energy efficiency programs and a state-of-the-art power system are important parts of a balanced approach to meeting our region’s future energy demands.”

Progress Energy Carolinas is aggressively pursuing renewable energy projects to meet the targets of North Carolina’s renewable energy portfolio standard (REPS), established in 2007. The REPS includes a statutory requirement that a portion of statewide electricity comes from poultry waste. The state’s utilities must together provide a total of 900,000 megawatt-hours per year from poultry waste, beginning in 2014. This project will help Progress Energy Carolinas meet its share of this requirement.

The plant will be built in Biscoe and is scheduled to begin operation in early 2013. Poultry Power USA estimates the project will be an investment of $125 million and bring about 100 direct and indirect jobs to the area. The plant will use 350,000 tons of poultry litter per year. Terms of the contract were not announced.

“We are pleased to bring jobs and commerce to North Carolina,” said George Erickson Sr., the chief executive officer of Poultry Power USA. “Our clean technology will provide renewable energy to consumers in the state, and we are excited about being a solution to the litter disposal challenges facing the poultry industry. Our commitment is to be a clean and solid corporate citizen with a small carbon footprint.”

Poultry Power USA is based in Jacksonville, Fla., and is a subsidiary of Green Frontiers Energy. The company will use a clean gasification technology at the Biscoe plant to turn poultry waste into a biogas to be burned inside a boiler. The heat in the boiler creates steam that then turns a turbine and generates electricity. The plant will have environmental controls and will have to meet all state and federal environmental standards.

Progress Energy Carolinas has several other biomass projects, such as wood waste-to-energy or landfill gas plants, but this is the first poultry waste-to-energy project in North Carolina. The utility also has about 7 MW of solar energy operating in the state.

Cornerstone Announces New BioCNG Alternative Vehicle Fuel System

Cornerstone Environmental Group, LLC announced that its new BioCNG™ alternative vehicle fuel system is up and running. The patent-pending biogas conditioning system economically produces biogas-based fuel to power compressed natural gas (CNG) vehicles. The first full scale project, at Rodefeld Landfill, in Dane County, Wisconsin, began operations in March 2011.

The landfill's BioCNG vehicle fueling station will operate in conjunction with an existing landfill gas electrical generation system. The BioCNG system will fuel site vehicles, with the potential to expand to supply fuel to waste trucks and other county vehicles.

"The BioCNG system is the first truly economic use for small quantities of biogas," said Richard A. Peluso, PE, President of Cornerstone. "This system provides a simple technology for private industries and municipalities to produce their own vehicle fuel at a fraction of the cost of gasoline or diesel and get similar or better engine performance."

BioCNG can be produced from a variety of biogas sources, including landfills, wastewater treatment plants, and agricultural and food waste digesters. The fuel can be used in vehicles that are manufactured or converted to use CNG vehicle fuel.

The basic BioCNG system uses 20 to 200 scfm of biogas to produce 100 to 1,000 gasoline gallon equivalents (GGE) of BioCNG per day and can be expanded if necessary. After cleaning and conditioning, BioCNG fuel meets SAE J 1616 and engine manufacturers' fuel specifications. It can be used directly or mixed with natural gas to produce a blended vehicle fuel. The cost of installing a BioCNG system depends upon actual site conditions, but is expected to be substantially less than earlier systems developed to convert biogas to CNG vehicle fuel.

(Crossposted from American Fuels)

Researchers ID Microbe Responsible For Methane From Landfills

Researchers have long known that landfills produce methane, but had a hard time figuring out why – since landfills do not start out as a friendly environment for the organisms that produce methane. New research from North Carolina State University shows that one species of microbe is paving the way for other methane producers.

Specifically, the researchers found that an anaerobic bacterium called Methanosarcina barkeri appears to be the key microbe.

Researchers can use these findings to accelerate methane production for power generation.

“Landfills receive a wide variety of solid waste, and that waste generally starts out with a fairly low pH level,” says Dr. Francis de los Reyes, an associate professor of civil engineering at NC State and co-author of a paper describing the research. “The low pH level makes it difficult for most methanogens – methane-producing organisms – to survive. We started this project in hopes of better understanding the mechanism that raises the pH level in landfills, fostering the growth of methanogens.”

What the researchers found was M. barkeri – a hearty methanogen that can survive at low pH levels. M. barkeri consumes the acids in its environment, producing methane and increasing the pH levels in its immediate area. This, in turn, makes that area more amenable for other methanogens.

As moisture leaches through the landfill, it disseminates those high pH levels – making other parts of the landfill habitable for M. barkeri and other methane-producing microbes. M. barkeri then moves in and repeats the process, leaving neutral pH levels – and healthy populations of other methanogens – in its wake.

Since M. barkeri and its methanogen cousins produce large quantities of methane, and methane is a powerful greenhouse gas, this could be bad news for the environment. But not necessarily. Methane can be, and often is, collected at landfill sites and used for power generation. Furthermore, methanogens break down solid waste as they go, compacting it so that it takes up less space.

“The research community can use our findings to explore ways of accelerating the methane-generation process,” de los Reyes says, “creating methane more quickly for power generation, and making additional room in the landfill for waste disposal.”

The paper, “Effect of Spatial Differences in Microbial Activity, pH, and Substrate Levels on Methanogenesis Initiation in Refuse,” will be published in the April issue of Applied and Environmental Microbiology. The paper was co-authored by Dr. Bryan Staley, who did the work while a Ph.D. student at NC State; de los Reyes; and Dr. Morton Barlaz, professor and department head of civil, construction and environmental engineering at NC State. The research was funded by Waste Management, Inc. and the Environmental Research and Education Foundation.

NC State’s Department of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering is part of the university’s College of Engineering.

Source : North Carolina State University