Small Power Producer Makes Green
Energy from Landfill Gas
THOROLD, ONTARIO - In just seven years
since its inception, a small private Ontario company has grown
to be one of the largest generators of energy from landfill gas
in Canada. Together, the plants designed, built, owned and
operated by Integrated Gas Recovery Services Inc. (IGRS)
generate 19 megawatts (MW) equivalent of energy from landfill
gas, enough to power approximately 20,000 homes.
Landfills generate gas as a by-product of the decomposition of
waste.
Approximately 50 per cent of this gas is methane. Typically,
this gas is flared off or left to vent into the atmosphere,
where it has the potential to produce odours - a major issue for
neighbours - and greenhouse gas emissions. As a result, landfill
gas has traditionally been a nuisance and cost to landfill
operators. IGRS is able to turn the problem into an asset and
generate renewable energy in the process.
IGRS builds and operates plants at landfill sites across Canada
where gas is collected, processed and used as a fuel source. One
plant, at a landfill in Niagara Falls, produces enough energy to
provide approximately 35 per cent of the heat required for the
newsprint operations at a nearby fibre paper mill. Another IGRS
plant, located at Mississauga's closed Britannia Landfill,
produces 5.5 MW of power, enough energy to power the nearby
Village of Streetsville, ON.
More recently, IGRS has partnered with Energy Ottawa Inc. to
develop a 5.3 MW power plant at the Trail Road Landfill in
Ottawa. Another partnership, with St. Catharines Hydro
Generation Inc., has resulted in the development of a 1.0 MW
landfill gas to energy plant in Niagara Falls.
IGRS is also in various stages of development at a number of new
facilities at landfills both within Ontario and in other
provinces across Canada.
IGRS is a partnership between Walker Industries, a family-owned
waste management company in Thorold, Ontario, and Comcor
Environmental Ltd. based in Cambridge, Ontario. Comcor is an
engineering firm that specializes in the management of landfill
gas. The companies came together to form the partnership
company, IGRS, to undertake a landfill gas project at Niagara
Waste Systems Ltd., a landfill in Niagara Falls.
"We had an odour problem at our company's Niagara Falls landfill
and had hired a series of consultants who had studied the issue
to death," says Walker's vice-president Mike Watt, who shares
CEO duties at IGRS. "I realized after a year and a half that we
were getting nowhere, so I called Walt Graziani, the president
of Comcor. The Comcor team came out to the site, temporarily
rigged up some piping and flared off the gas to resolve the
problem. They actually came out to see us and did something
constructive in an economical and practical way to get rid of
the odour. I was impressed with that," Watt says.
Watt further explains that the Comcor team then helped set up a
permanent system to capture the landfill gas and turn it into
usable energy, and then suggested that the two companies work
together to do the same thing at other sites. The IGRS
partnership was born in 2002 and has been developing new
projects almost annually ever since. IGRS has now grown to the
point of having annual revenues of over $10 million.
IGRS has established a solid track record in working with
municipalities in public-private partnerships to address
landfill gas problems through the beneficial use of landfill gas
as a renewable energy source. The company was recently
recognized by the Canadian Council for Public-Private
Partnerships for its Britannia Landfill Gas to Energy Project.
The company is poised to continue its impressive track record of
growth as it explores opportunities for further growth in
Ontario and across the country.
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