Officials in Haywood County are debating how to turn trash into treasure by converting greenhouse gases seeping out of an old county landfill into a source of clean energy.

The old Francis Farm landfill has sat dormant since its closure in 1993. All the while, decaying food scraps, paper, and other organic trash has been busy emanating methane, a greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming.

It wasn’t until recently that counties began tapping into methane as an energy source.

“Twenty years ago, nobody would think about tapping the landfill gas because natural gas and propane were so cheap,” said Timm Muth, director of the Jackson County Green Energy Park, which uses an old landfill to power a blacksmithing studio, biodiesel reactor and greenhouses. “But once the price of fuels reached a tipping point, landfill gas became economically viable.”

Today, 465 landfills across the country convert methane into energy, according to statistics kept by the Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA’s Landfill Methane Outreach Program has pinpointed Haywood County’s Francis Farm landfill as a candidate for such a project.

Turning methane into dollars

The county has several options for putting the methane to use and profiting from it, says Stephen King, Haywood County’s recycling coordinator.

Under one scenario, the county could make money simply by destroying the methane. The raw form of methane seeping from the landfill is a greenhouse gas. But the county could use a flare to burn off the methane and drastically reduce its harmful properties.

That would earn carbon credits, which the county can then sell. Carbon credits are a pollution allowance that works like a commodity. Industries that are polluting too much can buy carbon credits to offset their own emissions.

The cash value of carbon credits has increased exponentially. In three years, the value of a carbon credit has gone from $2 to $10, King said. In 10 years, a carbon credit could be worth more than $30. By flaring the methane, the county could rack up carbon credits worth as much as $30,000 to $40,000 a year — and likely even more, according to King.

To get more bang for its buck, the county could capture the energy given off while flaring the methane and use it to heat a greenhouse on the landfill site, King said. The county would earn more carbon credits for turning the waste heat into a clean energy source, and the greenhouse could be utilized by farmers, growers and other members of the community.

Yet another possibility: if enough methane can be captured from the landfill, it could be converted into electricity and sold over the power grid.

Or, methane-generated energy could stay at the landfill site and power small businesses. That could be an incentive for businesses to locate in the county, and in turn aid economic development.

“I would love to find businesses interested in having electricity provided for them,” said King.

If Haywood County tapped its other landfill, located in White Oak, it could potentially generate enough energy to power a large industry. Wake County has been successful in such an endeavor, generating enough energy from one of its landfills to power a Proctor and Gamble facility on the site.

“If we could encourage a business to come in here and offer them free electricity and give people an opportunity to have a job, that would be the ultimate right there,” said King.

To King, the possibilities that landfill methane gas offers are endless. He even envisions the methane one day powering other clean energy sources, such as wind turbines.

“This is all in the infancy stage, but I’d love to see things escalate and become huge potentials,” King said.

Getting started

As the idea of using methane gas generated by landfills has taken hold, companies have sprung up to capitalize on potential profits. Six companies dominate the scene in North Carolina, serving as developers of all but one of the state’s 13 landfill methane projects.

Haywood County has already been contacted by “seven or eight” different companies, according to King.

Partnering with a private business can be beneficial. Landfills are usually owned by counties and municipalities that have no idea how to go about destroying or capturing the methane gas. Companies can step in, paying for capital costs and equipment to tap the methane and handling the sale of the energy it generates to utilities. The owner of the landfill is then cut a check.

But with that model, the company can end up profiting more than the landfill owner.

“These companies are biting at the bit for me to sign the rights over to them,” said King. “That would be so detrimental to us.”

King envisions a company coming in for a temporary period to develop a methane gas project, but then handing control of it over to the county.

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