Bulletin article 6_24_2009.pdf

The Bulletin

Pilot project to turn fumes into energy

Published: June 24, 2009 4:00AM PST

For years, Timm Schimke thought about how gas wafting up

from decomposing material at Knott Land ll could fuel a powerplant.

“It’s probably been on my radar for eight years, maybe longer,”

said Schimke, director of Deschutes County’s Department of

Solid Waste.

Now, the county is ready with plans to connect gas wells at the

land ll to a cutting-edge engine. e gas will power the engine,

which will produce electricity.

“We think that should produce enough electricity to totally

o set our energy usage,” Schimke said of the pilot project.

If the pilot works, the county could eventually expand it into a

larger project with multiple engines

and sell the energy to utilities.

e project, which will cost about

$200,000, will use an existing

system of land ll gas wells covering

a portion of Knott Land ll,

Schimke said.

At the moment, the county

burns gas from the wells to keep

it from migrating out of the land ll

and because methane, a component

of land ll gas, is a highly potent

greenhouse gas.

Methane is at least 20 times

more e ective at trapping heat in

the atmosphere than carbon dioxide,

according to the U.S. Environmental

Protection Agency.

When land ll operators burn

methane or use it in energy projects,

they create carbon dioxide, said

John Straughan, an environmental

engineer at the Oregon Department

of Environmental Quality. Although

both are greenhouse gases, carbon

dioxide traps less heat in the

atmosphere than methane.

In 2005, methane from

Oregon’s land lls accounted for

1.8 percent of the state’s green-

house gas emissions, according to

data from the DEQ.

County sta members are currently talking to Central Electric

Cooperative and the vendor for a type of external combustion

engine, called a Stirling engine, that they want to buy. But for

now, the project timeline depends on how quickly the DEQ

approves a new air quality permit application the county will soon

submit to the agency.

e county’s Department of Solid Waste plans to submit its

permit application by the end of June, Schimke said, but it could

take six months to a year before the DEQ processes it.

Schimke believes CEC and the county “are interested in having

this thing generating electricity as soon as possible.”

Dave Markham, the president and CEO of CEC, said the

county and his utility have yet to work out what roles each will

have in a land ll gas energy project, but the idea is exciting.

Landfill gas to electricity

Timm Schimke, the director of Deschutes County’s Department of Solid

Waste, favors a type of external combustion engine known as a Stirling

engine for a pilot project to harness landfill gas to produce electricity.

Schimke and William Song, an engineer for the company that studied the

county’s plans for the energy project, said the Stirling engine works well

with biofuel from the pistons and other internal engine components.

Stirling Biopower, the company that currently makes a Stirling engine, says

its four-cylinder engines use high-pressure hydrogen in the cylinders to

pick up heat from the biofuel combustion and move the pistons.

“What I think we’ll do is, we’re going to work with them on the

pilot project and help get that up and running,” Markham said.

e utility already has experience with land ll gas-to-energy projects

as a part-owner of such a project near Corvallis, Markham said.

Schimke credits utility companies’ increased interest in

renewable energy for the favorable climate for land ll gas energy

projects. CEC has a “net metering” policy, under which it installs

meters for customers who generate power to keep track of how

much they take from the grid and how much they contribute.

“It sounds like this is the really key element here that will allow

us to do a small pilot project,” Schimke said.

e county’s Knott Land ll pilot

project could be the rst land ll

gas energy project in Oregon to

use the external combustion

Stirling engine, Schimke said.

A contractor who conducted

a feasibility study on the energy

project recommended the Stirling

engine as one of the more

promising technologies available.

“We think this technology is

better for the biofuel industry,”

said William Song, an engineer

with Energyneering Solutions

Inc., which did the study.

Song said contaminants in

land ll gas can build up in normal

internal combustion engines, so

they need a lot of maintenance or

the gas must be cleaned before it

enters the engine. Since the Stirling

engine uses external combustion,

it keeps the land ll gas away from

the inside of the engine.

Energyneering Solutions is

a distributor for the Stirling

engines manufactured by Stirling

Biopower, but Schimke said there

were a number of reasons the

power generator appealed to him.

Stirling engines are supposed

to be quieter than other engines,

so they are less likely to disturb neighbors, and the county would

not have to clean the land ll gas, Schimke said.

By starting with a pilot project, the county will be able to

determine how much noise the engine makes and invite land ll

neighbors to see how the power project works, Schimke said.

e pilot project will give the county three to ve years to get

a better idea of what its carbon credits are worth and solicit

proposals from utility companies that want to buy electricity

from a larger power project the county could build in the future.

“We’ll just be in a much better position to negotiate a good deal

when we do take on a large project,” Schimke said.

Stirling engine

Lanfill gas circulates in

chamber and burns.

White area is continuous

flame.

Piston

Crank shaft is

pistons

Hydrogen inside heat-exchanger tubes

heats up and moves each of four pistons.

Hydrogen is cooled and reused.

Source: Energyneering Solutions Inc. and Stirling Biopower

Greg Cross/ The Bulletin

Hillary Borrud can be reached at 541-617-7829 or at

hborrud@bendbulletin.com.

By Hillary Borrud

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