The City of Springfield is in the very beginning stages of a project to update its biogas production potential at the Noble Hill Sanitary Landfill and Southwest Wastewater Treatment Plant.
The City of Springfield recently received approval from City Council to declare design-build as the project delivery method.
Erick Roberts, assistant director of Environmental Services, said Missouri state statutes require that, in order to take the next step toward development, the city declare its intent to utilize the design/build process.
A study done so far is “very preliminary,” Roberts said, but it indicates the gas can be collected and then would go through an upgrading process to remove impurities and make it into a natural gas quality.
“Then at that point it would be the intent to inject it into one of the national natural gas pipelines that we have — there's a handful of various vendors in the area that...own and operate pipelines," said Roberts, "and then it would be sold into that grid to supply renewable energy on the natural gas network.”
Roberts told city council members it’s estimated that they could capture between 2,000 and 3,000 cubic feet per minute of natural gas at the landfill and 400 to 1,000 cubic feet per minute at the wastewater treatment plant, depending on what technology becomes available.
City Spokeswoman Kristen Milam said that, in the past, through a partnership with City Utilities, gas from the landfill was used to generate electricity.
“The City recently purchased the operation and equipment from CU and is in the process of determining the best use for the gas resource as an energy source,” she said.
