Category Archives: alternative power

Green

While I’m on the subject, kudos to the Toyota Motor Manufacturing Kentucky. While waiting for my Toyota to be serviced, I picked up Toyota Today, a magazine distributed solely in Toyota dealerships. The article I read was surely biased, but deserves praise nonetheless.

Have you ever driven past a mountainous landfill peppered with myriad pipes and thought, “What a waste!” (no pun intended) Toyota reports their partnership with Waste Services of the Bluegrass, generating power from landfill gas. The processed methane will provide enough annual power to produce 10,000 vehicles. Wells collect the gas, which is used to fuel generators and carry the electricity to Toyota’s manufacturing plant, a few miles from the landfill. The Toyota plant, which produces Camry Hybrid and Avalon Hybrid, has upped the ante for other green manufacturers.

Upon further research, I learned that virtually all landfill owners contract out gas extraction. This was encouraging, since venting and burning were the only methods of dealing with landfill methane this novice was aware of. Of the three typical ways of removing methane from landfills—venting, burning, and extraction—only later properly disposes of the potentially hazardous gas and offers the option of selling it as fuel. According to Jerry Soto, project manager for Houston-based Griffin Dewatering Corporation, over the last two decades, 594 U. S gas-to-energy sites have taken advantage of this benefit, generating 1,813 megawatts of electricity and lowering greenhouse gas emissions by 30%.

Methane extraction wells require expertise, as the process is dangerous. The gas is a naturally occurring byproduct of decomposing organic waste, posing two hazards. Although it’s in the air we breathe, high concentrations displace oxygen and pose a health hazard. It is highly flammable and potentially explosive.

Read how this precarious process takes place in Soto’s article for Public Works Magazine. The article is well written in terms easily understood by the layperson. It includes an optional slide show.

 Photo credit: zero waste america.org