Under a Texas company’s plan, landfill biogases will be converted into Natural Gas to build a new facility. It will a first of its kind in the state at the Pine Bend landfill in Inver Grove Heights. On Monday, the city council approved the plant, which will be built and run by Texas-based Fortistar. It is an investment firm that provides capital to build and manage companies that create green energy sources. Out of 70 such facilities nationwide, this is one.
Republic Services owns the Pine Bend Sanitary Landfill. It will lease Fortistar that land for a 12,000-square foot facility. The renewable energy gas plant will be up and running by March 2022. Aaron Janusz, the environmental manager at Republic Services, said, “This technology is new to Minnesota, but not to the rest of the country. These types of facilities have been in operation for several years.”
The landfill waste decomposes which in turn produces biogas, about 50% methane. The collected biogas will be treated by the plant. This process will strip out everything leaving pure methane and will be sent to the Xcel Energy pipeline. The fleet of trucks at the Pine Bend will be fuelled with this as they run on compressed Natural Gas.
Jonathan Maurer, managing director at Fortistar said that the company has built five similar facilities and is building three more in Ohio, Florida, and Inver Grove Heights. He said that it is a tried and true process. An increase in demand can be seen for this kind of biofuel by various companies and Congress.
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