Iowa City looks to landfill for energy

Iowa City and the University of Iowa want to tap the city?s landfill where acres of garbage are rotting for energy to power and heat laboratories and research centers.

The city, the university and MidAmerican Energy are partnering on a project to pipe methane gas from the landfill to the university?s Oakdale Campus, the Iowa City Press-Citizen reported. Methane is created when the garbage breaks down, and instead of burning it off into the atmosphere, officials want to use it.

?We?re just heating air,? said Ferman Milster, the university?s associate director of Utilities and Energy Management. ?There?s are a lot more and better ways to use that energy, and one of them is produce heat and power.?

The city and university each stand to gain from the project. Iowa City would divert the gas to the university for a yet-to-be-determined price, while the university potentially could save hundreds of thousands of dollars a year by using methane instead of natural gas and electricity, Milster said.

He said MidAmerican will pay for and build a $3 million 6-mile underground pipeline from the landfill to the Oakdale Campus beginning this summer. The university hopes to have the line operating by the end of the year.

Iowa City Public Works Director Rick Fosse said the city has been interested in the project for several years.

?Right now, it?s primarily a liability for us because we have to collect it and flare it,? he said.

Fosse said the city solicited interest from public and private entities before zeroing in on the university, which was the best option because of its potential to extract the maximum amount of energy from the landfill gas.

In recent years, the university has invested about $30 million to update its energy system at the Oakdale Campus. That includes engines to maintain its central backup power capable of burning either landfill gas or natural gas. The engines will be used once the gas project goes online. 

The university also plans to replace a natural gas boiler at the Oakdale Campus with a new biomass boiler that will run on solid fuels such as wood chips and oat hulls. 

Milster said that between the two projects, the campus could be close to running entirely on renewable energy by next year. 

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, there are more than 500 operational landfill gas projects nationwide. Iowa City would be the sixth in Iowa, joining others in Cedar Rapids, Des Moines, Lake Mills and two projects in Davenport.