Tag: Gas Generating Set The garbage of Houston County residents might well be powering their homes in the near future. Houston County is soliciting bids from a variety of companies, including Flint Energies, to buy the methane gas produced by the landfill. Flint Energies spokesman Jimmy Autry said that if the company is the winning bidder, it would hire a contractor to set up a generator at the landfill that could convert the gas into electricity, which would then be used as part of the electrical cooperative's overall power distribution network. "It's all-around good for us," Autry said. "The gas is out there being wasted now, and it's assurance that we are generating electricity in a green power way." The gas is generated by decomposing garbage in the landfill. The county already has a series of wells and a powerful vacuum system that sucks the methane out of the landfill. It is currently burned off at the collection point, sending up a flume through a 16-inch blower pipe. The flame has no odor and is invisible except at night. Methane only causes pollution when left to escape from the landfill without being burned off, said landfill superintendent Terry Dietsch. Based on the volume of gas that the county says the landfill produces, Autry said it would be expected to generate approximately four megawatts of electricity at any given moment. That's enough to power 3,000 homes, less than 1 percent of the 473 megawatts needed by Flint at peak usage. The electricity generated would go to the company's general power grid, not to power any specific area, Autry said. The gas volume could go even higher with both the growth of the landfill and a coming change in the way the county handles leachate, which is mostly rainwater that flows through the landfill and is collected in a giant tank. Currently, the county is taking the leachate to the Warner Robins waste water treatment plant, but last week it hired a company to begin recirculating the leachate back over the landfill. That will save money on the cost of transporting the leachate, and it will speed the breakdown of garbage in the landfill, creating even more methane, according to county Operations Director Tommy Stalnaker. Bids for the methane will be opened in early June, and Stalnaker said he expects the winning bid will be approved after a 30-day review. He forecast the landfill's methane will be getting put to use by the end of the year. The county has also solicited bids from Frito-Lay, Houston Cement and other nearby industries, and it has advertised for anyone else who may be interested. Those bidders would be expected to construct a pipeline from the landfill to the industry. Stalnaker said Georgia Power has also expressed an interest, but he wasn't sure if the utility will submit a bid. Based on preliminary discussions, he said, he is expecting to have at least six bids. The county executive declined to offer an estimate of how much money the county might collect. Companies would have to calculate the cost of the infrastructure needed, and it's hard to say what they would be willing to pay, Stalnaker said. But whatever money the county gets from the methane would go into the landfill enterprise fund, which pays for the landfill operation independently of tax dollars by charging a per-ton tipping fee from users. "It will help keep the tipping fees down," Stalnaker said. The winning bidder would pay all of the costs associated with converting the methane to use. The county would be responsible only for operating the collection system in the landfill. The county had not been able to sell the methane previously because the landfill did not have enough of the gas to make it worthwhile for a company to invest in the infrastructure, Stalnaker said. That has changed with the completion of phase 2, in which another field of methane wells and a vacuuming system will be installed. Over a period of years, methane production will start burning out in a given area, Stalnaker said, but then more new cells will come on line to contribute to the volume. Dietsch said phase one of the landfill, now completely filled in and grassed over, is 39 acres. The just completed phase two is 41 acres. The landfill is on a 2,400-acre tract off Ga. 247 south of Kathleen. It is expected to last another 125 years, even accounting for growth in the county. The landfill also serves Bleckley County, Cochran, Dodge County, Eastman, Pulaski County, Hawkinsville, Dooly County and Byron. It accepts an average of 850 tons of garbage per day and is funded entirely through user fees. Last year the Solid Waste Association of North America awarded Houston County its silver excellence award in landfill management, rating the operation, known for its lack of odor and country club-like entrance, the second-best landfill in the nation. Converting landfill gas into usable energy would represent another step forward for the county, Dietsch said. "We hope we can make some money but the biggest thing is to have our gas taken care of," he said.
