Veolia Environmental receives award
for effective methane gas conversion project
Milwaukee, WI— Veolia Environmental Services
(Veolia ES) Solid Waste, formerly Onyx Waste Services, has been
selected to receive a Golden Star Award from the Solid Waste Association
of North America (SWANA) in the Landfill Gas Utilization category.
The impetus for the award was a project that began
last year in Wisconsin Rapids through a partnership between one
of the company’s landfills, the Onyx Cranberry Creek facility
(Veolia ES Cranberry Creek Landfill), and a nearby Ocean Spray plant.
Estimated at $2 million, the project employs the conversion of methane
gas as a renewable energy resource.
SWANA’s Landfill Management Technical Division
established an excellence award based on the evaluation of a company’s
landfill management. The criteria for the award addresses the construction
and design, environmental controls, regulatory compliance, planning,
operations and financial management, utilization of equipment/systems
and technologies, public acceptance, appearance and aesthetics,
innovation and creativity, and application quality.
The energy conversion process makes the project
between the Veolia ES Cranberry Creek facility and the Ocean Spray
plant unique. The Veolia ES facility has utilized a groundbreaking
method for the reduction of greenhouse gases by utilizing landfill
gas as an energy source.
In May of 2005, the Onyx Cranberry Creek facility
and Ocean Spray began their waste-to-energy project. Together, they
designed and constructed a one-mile pipeline that converts and carries
methane gas from the landfill to the Ocean Spray plant. Methane
gas from this pipeline powers the Ocean Spray’s steam boilers,
which fuel the cranberry concentrators. Through this process, greenhouse
emissions were reduced by 7,000 tons a year, and Ocean Spray was
able to cut their fuel costs by 25 percent. This reduction is comparable
to the elimination of the carbon monoxide emissions, produced from
12,000 automobiles. |
