Landfill Gases to Energy Production in Sampson Couty, North Carolina
Sampson County, North Carolina is a pre-dominantly an agricultural based county having million hogs on farms. Traditionally, farmers in the county relied on lagoons and other stone-aged land applications for treatment of animal waste, which released methane and other harmful landfill gases in the environment. It is considerable that methane alone is 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide in trapping heat into the environment, thus affecting the entire community around it. Another cause was the release of Nitrate through waste product accumulated in the ground level, that was potentially harming the water level in shallow wells and with wells in Sampson county having a nitrate level at 9.5 PPM, concerns were high both for government and the local community.
However, during 1997, on account of growing environmental concerns from landfill gases, state government required farmers to opt for ‘’Environment Superior Technology’’ by sustainable treatment of methane and other landfill gases by capturing them and converting them into fuel rather than burning it as a waste product.
Over the year, many farmers have cooperated with the government and are now treating their landfill gases and converting it into electricity resources. Many private entities are reaping the opportunities in the county by converting landfill gases into energy resources. For instance, Duke Energy Inc., is producing 12.8 megawatts of electricity from landfill gases in Sampson County. Another renewable energy facility to be located in Clinton area of Sampson County was approved by the state government for producing 1.6 megawatts of electricity from methane gas produced from anaerobic digestion of organic wastes from a pork packaging facility in the county.
References
Government of North Carolina. "ANNUAL REPORT REGARDING RENEWABLE ENERGY AND ENERGY EFFICIENCY PORTFOLIO STANDARD IN NORTH CAROLINA." 2015.
Landfill Gas to Electricity. n.d. 5 April 2016 <https://www.duke-energy.com/environment/landfillgas.asp>.
Lewis, Joseph. BIO-GAS PLANTS AND HOG FARMING IN NORTH CAROLINA. Research . Durham: Duke University, 2001.
Withersravenel. AN INNOVATIVE APPROACH TO ENERGY CREATION. n.d. 5 April 2016 <http://withersravenel.com/case-studies/storms-farm/>.
