Construction is slated to begin next month on a new system that captures methane gas from the North Baton Rouge Landfill pending approval from the Metro Council next week. The city-parish will deliver the landfill gas to ExxonMobil’s Baton Rouge Polyolefins and Novolyte Technologies Chemical plants, where it will be used as a substitute for natural gas as a boiler fuel. The project will include installation of a methane gas collection system at the landfill, along with a 3.75-mile and 1.5-mile pipeline to transport the methane gas to the plants.
Siemens Building Technologies Inc. was selected to develop the system in August 2007 and will serve as contractor on the project. Public Works Director Pete Newkirk says the city-parish won’t pay anything for the pipelines up front because the contract with Siemens arranges for the contractor to take a cut of the proceeds from the methane gas.
Newkirk says the project is environmentally beneficial because the city-parish currently “flares” the methane at the landfill. If the gas is piped to the refineries, ExxonMobil saves money on natural gas while paying the city-parish for a resource that would otherwise be destroyed. East Baton Rouge Parish expects to receive up to $33 million, or about $1.65 million per year, over the 20-year life of the project. The project will also reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the Baton Rouge area equal to removing 59,000 cars from the road or planting 73,000 new acres of pine forests. Construction is slated for completion in April and the system is expected to be fully operational by June.—Emma James
