Published: September 10, 2024
Bartow, Fla. (September 10, 2024) – Most people know Polk County is discontinuing its curbside recycling collection service, but did you know the county’s Solid Waste Division is introducing two “green” initiatives?
A Renewable Natural Gas Plant is scheduled to start converting garbage-produced landfill biogas into renewable natural gas by Oct. 1, and the Constructed Wetlands Leachate Treatment Facility at the North Central Landfill is set to begin operations on Oct. 11.
“The Leachate Treatment Facility and the Renewable Natural Gas Plant will have a significant and positive impact on the environment in Polk County,” said Dale Henderson, Director of Polk County’s Solid Waste Division. “These initiatives establish Polk County as a waste industry leader. We’re investing in the well-being of our community.”
Polk County’s Leachate Treatment Facility has been developed in collaboration with the University of Florida’s Sustainable Materials Management Research Laboratory. Leachate occurs when rainwater filters downward though garbage at the landfill and is collected on the liner at the base of the landfill. The leachate is then removed from the landfill through a leachate collection system.
Polk County incurs a cost of about $2.5 million annually for the transportation and treatment of leachate by a local wastewater treatment plant. However, that cost will be reduced thanks to the new Leachate Treatment Facility, which mimics natural wetlands by removing and reducing constituents in the liquid that may be considered harmful. Thalle Construction built the Leachate Treatment Facility at a cost of $12.2 million.
“The Leachate Treatment Facility will help control landfill operating costs well into the future,” Henderson said.
The Renewable Natural Gas Plant, meanwhile, will be owned and operated by OPAL Fuels. Polk County is leasing the property the plant sits on to OPAL Fuels. The Renewable Natural Gas Plant cost more than $60 million to build, and it harnesses naturally occurring landfill biogas from the decomposition of organic materials/garbage within the landfill. The biogas is refined into renewable natural gas by removing or reducing, moisture, carbon dioxide, nitrogen, hydrogen sulfide, etc. This results in a clean, renewable natural gas fuel that can be injected into the local natural gas pipeline.
Previously, per the Department of Environmental Protection Agency’s regulations, the landfill’s biogas was captured and flared on site. The renewable natural gas facility will greatly reduce the amount of greenhouse gas emissions.
Additionally, Polk County’s two waste collection contracted service providers (FCC Environmental and GFL Environmental) will power their vehicles with compressed natural gas taken directly from the local natural gas pipeline.
“This creates an environmentally friendly closed loop,” Henderson said. “First, landfill trash creates biogas, which OPAL Fuels converts into renewable natural gas. FCC and GFL then use compressed natural gas to fuel the vehicles picking up the county’s garbage. By turning our landfill biogas into renewable natural gas, we are supporting our service providers’ decision to avoid using diesel fuel, in favor of clean burning compressed natural gas.”