Midwest Agricultural Soil

Midwest Agricultural Soil

L.P. Gill Landfill

The LP Gill project captures methane from a rural landfill that would otherwise be released into the atmosphere and pipes it to a local ethanol plant. The methane is then destroyed in a thermal oxidizer or in a backup flare. Thus, the project reduces harmful greenhouse gas emissions and provides social and environmental benefits to the local community. The project facility is owned and operated by LP Gill Inc, a waste management company located in Nebraska.

The project consists of 42 wells, a blower system, gas cleaning and pressurizing system and a pipeline to the Siouxland Ethanol plant located a mile away . Siouxland Ethanol started production in May 2007, and six months later began using the landfill gas. The landfill gas is blended with natural gas in the thermal oxidizer to power the 50 MMgy ethanol plant production.

Project Highlights

U.S. Energy coordinated the qualification of the project as a “carbon offset provider” and manages the resultant carbon credits for L.P. Gill, who receives carbon credits for methane destruction and for displacement of fossil fuel. With U.S. Energy’s assistance, L.P. Gill recently sold six-months worth of carbon credits in the marketplace to help offset project costs.

As a direct result of the project, Siouxland has a lower cost of energy than comparable ethanol plants; and L.P. Gill generates incremental revenue that can be used to finance a collection system and pipeline.

Gordondale Dairy Methane Capture Project

This project began in 2002, and over the course of the 20-year project duration it is expected to avoid 140,489 metric tons of CO₂ equivalent emissions through the capture and destruction of methane.  Manure from up to 875 cows from the Gordondale Dairy near Amherst Junction, WI, is fed into an anaerobic digester, which processes the manure and collects methane gas, which is then burned as an alternative energy source.   The diversion of manure from the previous practice of open-air lagoon treatment followed by the capture and combustion of methane produced by the anaerobic digester will lead to a significant net reduction in the emissions of methane at this facility.  Methane is a potent greenhouse gas, having 21 times the greenhouse warming potential of CO₂.  This project was verified by SES, Inc, and entered the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX) through an aggregator of agricultural emissions reduction projects. 

Montana Rangeland Carbon Sequestration Project Pool

This project consists of 9 ranching contracts that have been pooled together, representing 28,570 hectares (70,600 acres) of rangeland in southeastern Montana (Carter, Custer, and Powder River counties). Ranchers in this project are committed to carefully managed rotational grazing practices for cattle and horses that allow the grassland communities to sequester CO₂ in the soil. Different sections of the rangeland are rested during different times of year, and this pattern is switched from year to year to allow grassland plant species a chance to re-seed and persist over time. The grazing plans of these ranches also maintain habitat for wildlife species such as mule deer, whitetail deer, pheasant, antelope, elk, sharp tail grouse, and sage grouse. The Montana Rangeland project has generated Carbon Sequestration Offsets on the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX) for the years 2003-2007. This project was verified by a CCX-approved auditor and entered the CCX through an aggregator of rangeland emissions reduction projects.

Greater New Bedford Utilization Project

Project Overview: The project is designed to collect and combust methane gas, a greenhouse gas 21 times more potent than carbon dioxide, from the 152-acre landfill owned and operated by the Greater New Bedford Regional Refuse Management District. Carbon offsets are created by extracting gas from the landfill and combusting it to generate energy in a landfill gas-to-energy facility. Excess gas not consumed by the engines is flared to further reduce greenhouse gas emissions and generate additional offsets.

Greenhouse Gas Services portion of the project will reduce approximately 300,000 tons of CO2 equivalent over three years. This is the same as taking over 18,000 passenger cars off the road annually, reducing consumption of gasoline by more than 11 million gallons per year, or generating electricity for over 13,000 homes for one year.

Brazilian Biomass Energy Project

Project Overview: SES was contracted to verify offset credits that were generated by the Serraria Egidio Biomass Project in Juruena, Mato Grosso, Brazil. Environmental Credit Corporation (ECC) is project owner for these offsets. The verification was conducted by Mr. Rob Dobson of SES. The site visit took place on July 15, 2008. Mr. Fellipe Stuhler of Serraria Egidio was present during the site visit. Serraria Egidio Ltda. (Serraria Egidio) is claiming credits for operation of electrical generating equipment producing power from wood and wood residue. Two types of credits are being claimed from this project: (1) generation of electricity from renewable fuels, and (2) avoided methane emissions from controlled combustion of the wood residue.

Renewable Energy Production

SES used CCX's Rulebook, Section 9.12 pertaining to "Offset Issuance for Electricity Produced by Renewable Energy," as the guidance for the verification of the renewable electricity portion of this project. SES performed a document review, site assessment and interviews with personnel at Serraria Egidio to conduct the verification of the renewable energy source portion of this project.