Methane to Megawatts Project
An Earth-Friendly Agreement between AmerenUE and Fred Weber, Inc.
Fred Weber, Inc. and AmerenUE announced an agreement that includes plans to install combustion turbines capable of generating about 15 megawatts (MW) of electricity by burning methane gas at FWI's solid waste landfill. Tom Dunne, Sr. and Tom Dunne, Jr. represented Fred Weber at a press conference held at the methane gas facility located in the North Quarry on Thursday, September 10, 2009 along with Karen Foss and Warner Baxter of AmerenUE, Governor Jay Nixon and St. Louis County Representative Charlie Dooley. Glenn O’Bryan and Dave Bryant fielded questions from the media and conducted a tour of the landfill. Expected to be operational in 2011, the "Methane to Megawatts" project will be the largest landfill gas-electric plant in Missouri and among the largest landfill generation plants in the country in terms of generating capacity, producing enough electricity to meet the demands of about 10,000 homes. The methane will be delivered to turbines through a blower plant that delivers 6,000 cubic feet of landfill gas per minute, 24 hours a day. The gas is collected through 120 landfill wells, which are plumbed and connected with two miles of high-density plastic pipe. Currently, the blower delivers landfill gas for use at Fred Weber's on-site asphalt plant and to nearby Pattonville High School and Jaeger Greenhouses, where it is used to generate heat. Delivery of gas to the high school and greenhouse facilities will not be affected by UE's use of methane, which is currently burned off ("flared") when not needed.
Landfill Gas Recovery
The Fred Weber Sanitary Landfill, the area's largest with a projected 60 year life and over 50% of the region's remaining disposal capacity, provides the St. Louis metropolitan area with the responsible comfort that safe and environmentally secure disposal is being provided for non-hazardous solid waste. Facility operations efficiently handle about 400 trucks and ± 4,000 tons of solid waste each day. State of the art environmental controls include: waste screening inspection and employee training, composite clay/geosynthetic liner and final cover systems, leachate collection system, landfill gas (LFG) collection system including over 120 LFG collection and monitoring wells, 14 groundwater monitoring wells, stormwater detention and monitoring, and GPS technology for construction grading control. The Company's environmental managers and landfill operations have received numerous awards for environmental achievement, leadership and innovation.
Landfill Operations
In addition to FWI's tremendous asphalt and concrete recycling programs, the Company also operates one of the region's largest composting facilities recycling yard waste and tree trimmings. The decomposition of the landfilled solid waste provides an additional recycling program for the Company by using methane rich LFG in unique applications reducing the drain on the limited reserves of natural gas. LFG fuels the combustion needed to heat liquid asphalt and dry aggregate in making FWI asphalt. The Pattonville High School heating system runs on LFG from the FWI landfill. Other nearby users include the Jaeger Greenhouse and Breckenridge Concrete. The LFG complex also includes a dehydration unit that removes moisture from LFG to produce a dry gas and is the anchor to the next phase of recycling even more LFG.
