Waste Management Investing US$400 Million In Methane To Electricity Projects
by John Laumer, Philadelphia on 06.29.07
"Waste Management Inc., North America's largest garbage hauler and landfill operator, plans to spend roughly US $400 million at 60 landfills over the next five years to convert methane gas to electricity, its most ambitious renewable energy project to date.
The program includes four landfills in Ontario and two in Quebec. Landfills are the largest source of methane emissions in the United States, accounting for 34 per cent of such releases, according to the Environmental Protection Agency...In an announcement Wednesday, Waste Management said it will begin building landfill gas-to-energy facilities this year in Texas, Virginia, New York, Colorado, Massachusetts, Illinois and Wisconsin. It operates 281 landfills in North America, and 100 already have some form of methane-to-energy capabilities. The next 60 will be at the remaining landfills in Waste Management's portfolio with enough gas flow for such projects, said Paul Pabor, vice-president for renewable energy."
Let's think what this announcement means in the context of distributed energy production from local renewable resources, using novel green technology. There's considerable "green" business and patent development work going on with new "bio-reactors" to compost organic waste to produce methane. Much of it to be done in the corporate or college campus setting. Once Waste Management completes its 160 methane-to-electricity projects, what it will have is precisely 160 bio-reactors, a.k.a. biogas plants, but without much of the process technology investment and absent the energy inputs needed to make the anaerobes flourish in a man-made chemical process train. On the other hand, the collection and hauling of waste to centrally managed waste fills outside an urban core is a large C02 emission source. The trade off for areawide waste management includes a public health benefit (excluding rat food and disease vectors from the developed environment) that does not accrue to locally used bio-reactors. Plus, the design life of a landfill for methane production stretches toward the century scale. So, can we really say which is better for the future?
Via:: Canadian Business Online
Image credit: Environment Ministry Of Canada, Quebec
Regarding the statement "Landfills are the largest source of methane emissions in the United States, accounting for 34 per cent of such releases".
Is this the largest source of man-made emissions, or the largest source of total emissions? Specifically, does this statement factor in dairy and cattle farms?
Modern Corporation in Western NY already does this, and they use the heat (given off from burning the gas to create electricity) to warm their greenhouses, where they grow tomatoes.
Waste Management doesn't deserve to get any positive press until such time as they start providing recyclying services to all their customers for whom they provide trash pickup services.
Right now, here in Austin, there's a really big nasty fight brewing because Waste Management has decided they're not going to do recyclying pickup for large swaths of their customer base, and a lot of people are hopping mad.
They would like nothing better than to put Waste Management permanently out of business, but in the meanwhile they'll settle for getting as many people as possible to switch all services over to other providers, who presumably would include recycling as well as regular trash pickup.
That sounds good. The last time I remembered, Waste Management tries to be green.
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Companies are complex. Its really not fair to make an ethical judgement on one dimension. Take the recycling comment for example. The economics of recycling in the US are bad and getting worse: fuel costs going up is a big reason. Just as important, pulp and paper demand for recycling feedstock is going down due to overseas competition, reduced purchases of paper in general (more internet reading, less papers and magazines), and closure of many US P&P mills over last several years. To sum up: higher operating costs, reduced demand, greater chance that a local recyling effort loses money.
Sounds really intresting and yes instead of just duming y not waste to energy models tried out and thts the only feasible sustainable solution which can be technically controlled thru various processes provided the emissions captured are utilised in the right way.
Good work atleast its not like other cities where its just a lip service and nothing else.
Waste management will be the coming future as many people are trying to enter this field who hardly has any knowledge about it but who cares til the waste is cleared offfffffffff.
Srinivas Kasulla
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