Honeywell Uses Landfill Gas for Power and as Feedstock

Every day, Honeywell International Inc.'s massive chemical plant in Hopewell, Virginia, consumes about 57 million cubic feet of gas, to fuel the plant's operations and as a raw material to manufacture a key ingredient in nylon. As natural gas prices have increased, Honeywell looked for ways to cut dependency on natural gas, and they looked to landfill gas. A 18-inch pipeline connects the Honeywell facility in Hopewell with the landfill owned by Waste Management, Inc. located 23 miles away in Waverly, Virginia. The pipeline went on-line in January 2004. There are other landfill gas pipelines in Virginia and the United States, but the pipeline supplying Honeywell is unprecedented in scope.

"It is the [longest] pipeline of its kind in the country," said Keith Togna, an engineer and energy coordinator at the Hopewell plant. When it was completed in late 2003, the Waverly-to-Hopewell pipeline eclipsed the previous record-holder, a landfill-gas pipeline in Wichita, Kan., by more than 10 miles.

The landfill gas offsets a portion of the natural gas that would normally be used as fuel. Landfill gas is now displacing about 15 percent of the natural gas fuel requirements of the plant and eventually it will displace about 25 percent, or even as much as 50 percent of the plant's fuel needs." That may take 10 to 15 years as the landfill grows in capacity," Togna said. Honeywell officials predict that the plant could save about $50 million in energy cost over the life of the 15-year contract to purchase landfill gas.

The 373-acre Waverly landfill takes in about 15,000 tons of solid trash a day. Big trucks arrive at the landfill six days a week, hauling in waste from as far away as New Jersey. The landfill, which rises above the surrounding landscape like a small mountain, has been in operation since 1994 and has taken in about 15 million cubic yards of waste. It has about 95 million cubic yards of space left, or about enough for another 40 years.

Officials with Honeywell and Waste Management tout the environmental benefits of the project, which helps reduce methane emissions into the atmosphere and cuts back on fossil-fuel use. "The days of just digging a hole and burying trash in it are done," said Michael P. Kearns, the district manager overseeing the landfill. Methane "is a byproduct of the decomposition process, and it is being used beneficially," he said. If the gas were not being piped to Honeywell, it would be discharged into the atmosphere.

Last year, the Environmental Protection Agency honored Honeywell outstanding landfill-gas project. The pipeline project has resulted in a reduction of greenhouse-gas emissions equivalent to planting more than 5,200 trees.

Learn more about Honeywell's use of landfill gas: EPA, Richmond Catalyst, Textile World, and Energy Vortex.

Read about more companies using energy from landfills.