Landfill gas fuels savings in Ohio city
A Nestlé plant in Solon, Ohio, is cutting energy costs by importing landfill gas to replace most of the natural gas used at the facility. The arrangement is the culmination of a seven-year project that involved numerous public and private participants.
Nestlé engineers scheduled the energy production project to coincide with the planned construction of a new boiler house. The food manufacturer hired Mahwah, N.J.-based EMCOM/OWT Solid Waste Services to build a landfill gas compression facility and install pipeline to connect the plant to the closed Cuyahoga Regional Sanitary Landfill.
The landfill gas is collected by locally based NEO, which owns the gas collection system and operates a 3.5 megawatt power facility adjacent to the landfill. (The landfill is owned by Houston-based Waste Management.) Nestlé then purchases the gas at a price discounted from a standard index, resulting in significant cost savings.
The collected gas is chilled to 40 F to remove condensate and then compressed to 20 psi before being piped to the plant. Via 2.2 miles of 12-inch, high-density polyethylene pipe, it is conveyed to the plant, where it is used to fuel a 72 million BTU/hour boiler. EMCON/OWT has a 10-year contract to supply the plant with the gas.
In addition to benefiting Nestlé, the project is producing some payoffs for Solon. As a result of the project, the city has secured the opportunity to purchase discounted electric power from NEO. It also is burning a small amount of the landfill gas to heat a nearby garage and storage area.