Methane project under way

• By BOB ARDOIN
• Special to The Advocate
• Published: Dec 4, 2008 - Page: 1BA - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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BEGGS — A groundbreaking Wednesday at the St. Landry Parish solid waste landfill launched a $700,000 methane gas reduction project that officials said may be the first of its kind statewide.

Executive Director Katry Martin said the gas collection system, scheduled to begin in January, is designed to capture and destroy methane gas generated at the landfill.

The project will result in the voluntary reduction of landfill greenhouse gas emissions caused by garbage decomposition by using a flaring process that burns off carbon into the atmosphere, said Steve Tate, engineer for the Solid Waste Commission.

Methane reduction will allow the commission to earn what Martin said are carbon credits for the amount of methane destroyed.

Once the methane is burned off, the amounts are registered and verified, and the credits earned for that effort will be sold as a commodity to utility and industrial companies needing to comply with federal emission regulations.

Martin said the project approved earlier this year by the commission, will cover about one-third of the landfill’s 80 acres, which have accepted garbage from St. Landry and Evangeline parishes since 1984.

Project costs include capital improvements to the landfill, the purchasing of gas wells to collect the methane and a piping and a vacuum system to move the gas out of the ground, Martin said.

He said expenses also include “soft costs” such as engineering and operating the removal system.

The installation process begins with drilling vertical wells consisting of perforated pipe into the ground. The perforated sections, said Martin, connect to a series of more pipe that ties into a vacuum system.

Martin said the vacuuming process draws out and collects the gas which is released as a natural process from decomposing refuse.

The next step toward the methane destruction is initiating a flaring process which burns the methane harmlessly into the atmosphere, he said.

Eventually, the methane gas extracted from the landfill could have other uses as combustible material in engines, or sent through auxiliary pipelines from the landfill to be used in boilers or mixed with natural gas, Tate said.

Jason Tournillon, representing GT Environmental Finance, said the company will buy the carbon credits from the commission and then resell them as a commodity on the climate exchange market.