The First Facility Management Blog

The United States Environmental Protection Agency, The Dow Chemical Company and the city of Dalton, GA partnered in a renewable energy source project that has far exceeded expectations in its first quarter of operation. The project takes gas from a Dalton landfill and uses it to fuel Dow’s latex carpet backing plant.

While in operation just three months, the latex carpet backing plant has already surpassed initial projections, according to Todd Crook, global marketing manager, Dow Flooring. Multiple carpet manufacturers have entered into agreements to use latex carpet backing produced with the fuel of LOMAX™ Technology, the name Dow bestowed upon this renewable energy source process. LOMAX Technology uses renewable energy (currently landfill gas) to manufacture latex carpet backings, which reduces greenhouse gas emissions and assists customers in developing high performance products with sustainable attributes.

Dow partnered with the EPA’s Landfill Methane Outreach Program (LMOP) in early 2008 and has gained knowledge through this partnership. As a result of the success of the Dalton Landfill project and the partnership with LMOP, Dow is in the evaluation phase of two to three other similar projects in the United States.

“While most Americans think of landfills as a final resting place for their garbage, they are actually a source of valuable, clean energy,” said Victoria Ludwig, manager of the LMOP. “Dow’s landfill gas capture program is one of many examples where American businesses are rethinking how they power their operations.”

LMOP is a voluntary assistance and partnership program that promotes the use of methane in landfill gas as an energy source. By preventing emissions of methane (a powerful greenhouse gas) through the development of landfill gas energy projects, LMOP helps businesses, states, energy providers, and communities protect the environment and build a sustainable future.

“When carpet manufacturers and their customers choose Dow latex backing, they can not only feel good about getting the products, but also products with an improved environmental impact,” said Crook. “In the manufacturing of our latexes for carpet backing, our target is to replace nearly all the fossil fuel required to manufacture latex with methane gas that would otherwise be emitted into the atmosphere.” More than 85% of carpet manufactured today utilizes latex as a backing material to hold the carpet fibers in place. LOMAX Technology will use approximately 200 billion Btus annually of methane gas, which is equivalent to the amount of energy required to heat 2,100 US homes annually. By utilizing this landfill gas in the Dalton carpet latex plant, the partnership will reduce CO2 emissions by approximately 25 million pounds annually—which is comparable to keeping 2,300 cars off the road each year.

While piping “garbage gas” from a landfill to fuel a manufacturing facility is not a new technology, it continues to gain popularity as businesses and municipalities search for products that specifically target the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and the dependence on using fossil fuels. The carpet industry has pushed the sustainability issue, putting pressure on itself before the words “LEED” and “green” came to the forefront.

“Utilizing landfill gas to replace our fossil fuel consumption is truly improving our environmental footprint and equally important is that this is a sustainable attribute that is easy for consumers and specifiers to understand, which is a challenge in today’s rush to market green products,” Crook noted. “We are using renewable energy that is naturally generated in a landfill and using that energy to replace our fossil fuel. These kinds of initiatives will change things in our lifetime.”  

Developments like LOMAX Technology are in keeping with Dow’s 2015 sustainability goals, a multi-part program to address some of the most pressing economic, social and environmental concerns facing the global community over the next 10 years.

To help reduce energy use and help the environment the City of San Leandro, CA recently approved a contract with Siemens Building Technologies, to build a 330 kilowatt cogeneration facility at the city’s water pollution control plant (WPCP). Expected to save 60% in plant energy use, the new power plant has the potential to reduce CO₂ emissions by 1,500 tons per year, or the equivalent of planting 1,500 new trees. The new facility represents a major step in helping the city meet its goal of reducing San Leandro’s greenhouse gas emissions by 25% below 2005 levels by 2020.

“Any way you look at this project is a win-win,” says San Leandro mayor Tony Santos. “We are cutting the city’s energy costs and reducing the city’s impact on global warming; reusing a waste product, namely, grease; and using only funding that is specifically dedicated for this purpose, preserving our general fund monies for critical city programs. It is exciting to be at the forefront of cities taking on this type of project and look forward to all the benefits it will bring.”

The $5.6 million agreement with Siemens includes design, construction, and maintenance for the cogeneration system. Project costs will be covered by WPCP enterprise funds, which according to San Leandro officials are collected annually from city sewer service fees and will be used for maintaining and improving the plant. The new facility will also take advantage of applicable rebates, including a $255,000 self-generation incentive program (SGIP) rebate from local utility Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E).

“The city of San Leandro has put themselves at the forefront of municipal sustainability and energy efficiency by embarking on this innovative renewable energy project,” says Mike Kearney, sr. director, U.S. energy & environmental solutions for Siemens Building Technologies. “Through the conversion of waste to energy, this new cogeneration plant not only takes advantage of local resources, it is kinder to the environment—through reduced greenhouse gas emissions—and will operate at a lower cost.”

The WPCP treats an average of 6 million gallons per day of municipal and industrial wastewater and is the largest single consumer of electrical energy of all city facilities. Currently, the plant uses PG&E supplied energy to run wastewater treatment operations. The plant also produces some 96,000 cubic feet per day of methane gas (a greenhouse gas shown to be 21 times more potent than CO₂), most of which is burned off and not reused. The new co-generation facility will now use all the methane gas to fuel specially designed reciprocating engines (large internal combustion motors) to spin generators that will produce the electricity needed to power the plant and treat the wastewater. 

In addition, the heat produced by the reciprocating engines will be recycled in effect and used to raise the temperature of the water needed in the treatment process. This system is efficient because it uses normally discarded methane to create both electrical energy and heat; hence, the term cogeneration.

The proposed facility features three major components: three 110 kilowatt generators that produce 285 kilowatts of continuous electrical energy needed to power the plant; a gas conditioning facility that cleans and cools the methane from the WPCP’s digester (making it suitable to fuel the reciprocating engines); and a grease receiving station that will accept additional waste grease from commercial waste haulers to enhance the digester process and increase methane gas production. With the new system, not only will the city be recycling grease from companies throughout the local area, it will improve the performance and efficiency of the generators while generating revenue from grease disposal fees.

Prior to construction, the project will require review and approval by the city’s Community Development Department and permits from the Bay Area Air Quality Management District. Construction on the facility should begin in late summer 2009, after the necessary permits and reviews have been completed.