The provider of comprehensive waste management services in North America celebrated the opening of this unique plant which produces pipeline-ready clean fuel from the landfill gas produced at its Milam Landfill in Fairmont City, Illinois.
In early December, the processed renewable natural gas will be injected into the Ameren Illinois pipeline for withdrawal at other locations, including some Waste Management facilities. The natural gas is used to heat homes or fuel truck fleets and other equipment that run on CNG.
The Milam Renewable Natural Gas Facility, which is the company’s third plant to convert landfill gas to natural gas, is designed to process approximately 3,500 standard cubic feet per minute (SCFM) of incoming landfill gas. This is as much gas as it takes to fuel about 200 Waste Management CNG collection trucks each day, and represents more than 5 percent of the natural gas that is used in Waste Management’s entire CNG fleet per day. Waste Management of Illinois currently has more than 100 CNG trucks in its fleet displacing about one million gallons per year of diesel fuel.
“This is the first facility of its kind we’ve actually built from the ground up,” said Jim Trevathan, executive vice president and chief operating officer for Waste Management. “This innovative facility utilizes renewable landfill gas, and purifies it to a high-quality natural gas that in turn feeds into the adjacent pipeline to fuel our growing fleet of CNG trucks. This truly maximizes available resources while creating a new and beneficial use.”
The $19 million Renewable Gas Facility was partially funded by a $2.4 million grant from the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity and the Illinois Energy Office.
Source: Waste Management.
