Agreement looks to make use of landfill methane emissions

Larimer County is likely thanking its lucky landfill for Jay Hopper.

The chairman of the board for Timberline Energy might have been the county's only answer to capturing and utilizing methane from its landfill.

While others have said the Larimer County Landfill does not generate enough methane to make such a project profitable, Timberline Energy and two of the three County Commissioners agreed this week to partner in a project to build a landfill gas management system, collect and treat the garbage's emissions and sell it as natural gas or energy.

The commissioners' approval of the partnership comes after almost a year of discussions between the two entities. The project will cost Timberline, which will build and maintain the system, about $1.5 million. When the natural gas or electric energy from the methane is sold, Timberline will pay Larimer County a royalty from the sales.

Larimer County Solid Waste Director Stephen Gillette said the county “had been on a quest” for years to find a use for the methane emissions without any luck.

The landfill is smaller and likely produces less methane than the other projects that Timberline Energy generally works on. But the company has a personal interest in the venture: Hopper's proximity to the landfill and its methane emissions. The Colorado-based energy company decided to take on the Larimer County Landfill because Hopper is not only the president of Timberline Energy's parent company and chairman of its board but he's a resident whose house is perched not far from the landfill.

“Well, it's in his hometown. That's one of the reasons we are doing it,” said Greg Tilden, Timberline Energy president. “And it's also our second project in Colorado. If it were a stand-alone project, we would not necessarily choose it. But we have the staff in place.”

Hopper himself said the project is “pushing the envelope” of producing enough methane to make the project financially viable.

County Commissioners Kathay Rennels and Glenn Gibson were happy with the agreement, calling the project “very exciting.” Commissioner Randy Eubanks was out because of a death in the family.

Gillette gleamed with excitement throughout the meeting

“We have wanted to collect methane,” Gillette said. “It's the right thing to do. We can't continue to waste valuable resources.”

Methane is a greenhouse gas known to be 23 times more powerful than carbon dioxide, making it much more efficient at trapping heat. Municipal solid waste landfills are the largest source of human-developed methane in the U.S.

“Methane capture is always a good thing,” said James Lang, executive director of Energy Literacy Advocates, a Fort Collins-based non-profit that seeks to provide education on energy issues. “It's far more destructive than carbon emissions. Doing anything with it is a lot better environmentally.”

The only negative to projects like this one, according the Grassroots Recycling Network, is that the focus becomes less on decreasing the amount of waste in a landfill and more on making money from the methane.

“'Garbage-to-energy' is now being legally classified in numerous states as a 'renewable' energy source,” GRN's Web site proclaims. “This is in direct opposition to the Zero Waste Movement-our goal is to eliminate waste, not enshrine it as a renewable resource!”

That's not to say the county will stop efforts to encourage recycling and landfill diversion.

What exactly Timberline will do with that methane has yet to be determined. The current proposal would turn the methane into natural gas, cleaning it up in the process and putting it into a pipeline for the final user, which Tilden said will likely be an industrial or institutional facility.

Underneath the landfill, the company will build wells to gather emissions from the waste, collecting about 50 percent methane, 45 percent carbon dioxide, some oxygen, nitrogen and a small amount of contaminants. Then it will be compressed, filtered, chilled and transported via pipeline to whoever has purchased the natural gas.

Another option is to turn the methane into energy and put it on the electric grid.

“We'll be looking at both options,” Tilden said. “It'll be which one is easier to get done.”

The attraction to natural gas would likely be monetary; currently, natural gas is going for almost three times what it was just years ago. But the natural gas market is also extremely volatile, according to Energy Literacy Advocates.

Electricity generation would likely be helped along by using renewable energy credits, which put a monetary value on the environmental benefits that come from putting renewable energy on the electric grid.

Timberline Energy will pay for whichever collection system is needed, but if either party decides to opt out of the partnership, Larimer County must pay the company back. Gillette said the county has set aside funds just in case.

“We have to keep collecting once we start,” Gillette said. “We're voluntarily collecting the methane but we won't involuntarily stop, which is a good thing.”