Garbage throughout the Salt Lake valley has suddenly become "hot stuff." It's literally generating clean, burnable methane gas Kennecott Copper may soon use to fire up its smelter boilers.
Science Specialist Ed Yeates looks at an innovative experiment into the sweet side of a smelly business.
At the Salt Lake Valley Landfill, tons of smelly garbage are plowed and compacted into 25 foot high mounds.
But not far away, on the other side of a hill, a sweeter smell percolates from one of 34 vertical wells. It's methane gas - the byproduct of decaying garbage deep under the old part of the landfill.
Right now, gas is being funneled into this small plant at the rate of about 800 cubic feet per minute. But over another 20 to 30 years - that will jump to 6 thousand cubic feet per minute.
The methane burns 99 percent efficient at 17 hundred degrees. It's actual thermal output - is considered moderate. But that's more than enough to interest Kennecott.
ROMNEY STEWART, EXEC. DIRECTOR, S.L. VALLEY LANDFILL: "THEY'RE INTERESTED IN USING IT TO REPLACE THE USE OF FOSSIL FUELS FOR THEIR BOILER. IT CAN BE PIPED TO THEIR BOILER AND INJECTED THERE ON A 24 HOUR, SEVEN DAY A WEEK BASIS."
In addition to vertical wells - crews daily are laying horizontal pipe.
ED YEATES, SCIENCE SPECIALIST: "WHAT YOU DON'T SEE IN THE DUMPING OF ALL THIS GARBAGE ARE THE THOUSANDS AND THOUSANDS OF FEET OF PERFORATED PIPE UNDERNEATH - COLLECTING ALL THE METHANE."
Pipes now are placed under every 25 foot layer of garbage. Once sealed at the joints, a vacuum literally sucks the methane through the holes.
THOMAS BURRUP, SUPERVISOR, ENVIRONMENTAL COMPLIANCE: "KEEP IN MIND THAT AS SOON AS THE GARBAGE IS BURIED IT DOESN'T IMMEDIATELY GENERATE METHANE. THERE WILL BE LAPSE TIME OF SEVERAL YEARS BEFORE WE'LL HAVE GOOD METHANE FROM GARBAGE THAT IS DUMPED TODAY."
They say one man's trash is another man's treasure. Certainly, there's a chest full of it here waiting to be tapped.
Other landfill operations are watching the Salt Lake experiment.
If it works well, similar methane plants could spring up in other parts of the state.
Aug. 1, 2002
