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The
recycled methane gas, drawn from the Palmetto Landfill near Spartanburg,
will supply BMW with 25 percent of its energy needs at the BMW plant where
X5's and
Z4's are made. U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Christine Todd Whitman participated
in the announcement.
Biogas
projects capture methane gas from decaying garbage at sanitary
landfills. When a landfill becomes full, it is covered, and the
garbage inside starts a natural decomposition process. This process
produces methane gas, which can be collected through pipes.
Landfills
are the largest man-made methane source in the United States. Methane
is produced as trash decomposes. When released into the air, it is a
greenhouse gas and contributes to local smog conditions.
The gas
collection process actually creates less air pollution than would
occur if the gases were allowed simply to escape into the atmosphere.
BMW's
project is unique in that the methane gas is used to fuel four
turbines at the BMW factory, which produce electricity and hot water.
Most other landfill gas projects produce electricity at the landfill
and use it only for electricity or direct heating. The efficient
cogeneration of electricity and hot water has been a part of BMW's
overall plan since construction began on the plant in 1993.
BMW's
Landfill Gas-to-Energy Project supports the Environmental Protection
Agency's (EPA) efforts in the Landfill Methane Outreach Program (LMOP),
which began in 1994 as a means of converting landfill gas into
clean-burning, cost-effective, useable energy.
BMW's landfill gas-to-energy project will reduce carbon dioxide
emissions equivalent to driving 105 million miles per year or more
than 4,000 times around the earth. The project will also recover
sufficient energy to heat the equivalent of 15,000 homes per year.
To utilize the gas, a 9.5-mile pipeline was built from the landfill to
BMW Manufacturing. Construction on the Landfill Gas-to-Energy Project
began in July 2002 and was completed in December 2002.
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