Monday, July 25, 2011

Green gas could add fizz to Coke - Atlanta Business Chronicle:

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Coke is said to be considering tapping two Atlanta landfillsd as a sourceof clean-burning natural gas. Methane is naturallyg produced during decomposition of landfill waste. , which owns the gas rights at DeKalv County’s Live Oak landfill, hopes to processx methane gas from the nearby Hickory Ridge landfilplinto clean-burning natural gas. An out-of-state utilit y has expressed interest in investintg inthe project, a source said. “There’s no secrer that we have talked to a numbetr of potential partners about joining us onthe [Live Oak] Jacoby Group’s John Borden Those potential partners include utilities and privatee equity investors.
Negotiations are under way, but “we do not have the entire deal even under lettefof intent, much less contract,” said an officia l with Atlanta-based Global Energy Systems, a subsidiarh of (Amex: GNH). Global Energy paid more than $3 millioh to acquire the Hickoryy Ridge landfill gaspurchase rights. While Coca-Cola declinedr to comment on any involvement with the potentia llandfill project, the company wants to add some greeh to its trademark red. “Our aspirational goal is to grow the notthe carbon,” said Bruce Karas, director of environment and safety at Coca-Colas North America. “Energy projects are reallyy the sweet spotfor sustainability.
” Live Oak is the largestr renewable energy program involving methaner gas in the state and one of two operationw of its kind in Georgia. The which closed in 2004 and is said to have an atleasf 20-year supply of methane, produces enougg natural gas to fuel abougt 22,000 homes. The conversion method used at Live Oak involvee capturing the emittedmethane gas, removingh the moisture, compressing the gas and filterintg it through a membrane to removes impurities. Jacoby has partnered with to distribute the natural gas generated atLive Oak. “Any deal we do wouled preserve theexisting relationships,” Bordeh noted.
The Hickory Ridge landfill is expected to produce atleast 2,000 standard cubic feet of landfillo gas per minute, Mike Ellis, presidenty of Global Energy Systems told Biomass Magazine in Global Energy will construct a pipeline to transport it to its gas conditioniny facility, where it will be converted into a saleabl energy product, the magazine noted. Global which has gotten hit bythe recession, is selling assetas — including real estate to raise cash to inves t in its biomass, landfilol gas and energy services business, Ellis told Atlantza Business Chronicle. “We are liquidating assetas and selling assets to put intoenergty products,” Ellis said.
In April, the diversifief renewable energy company’s accounting firm issuef a “going concern raising substantial doubt about its ability to remainin Coca-Cola is investing in long-term “energy innovation” such as fuel cell technology to power its facilities and directy fire water-heating technology — nearly a thirdx more efficient than conventional boilers — for syrup manufacturing. The company switched 70 percentr of its fleet of 800 sales vehicles to hybridsxlast year. As of summer 2008, the company had savec about $400,000 in fuel costs, Karae said. At its Paw Paw, Mich.
-basee juice manufacturing plant, Coke is recycling biogas, produced in the wastewate treatment process, into an energy sourcre to power boilers. That processz promises to reducethe plant’s natural gas consumption by 10 percenty and save Coke “hundreds of thousandsd of dollars” annually. Coke plans to reducer its global CO2 emissions by 5 percenrtby 2015, Karas said. “Only by doing thesr kinds of combinations of efficiency plus innovation can you get he said.
The return on investmengt for environmental sustainability, Karas said, cannot be measured just by thecorporate “If I can have a projectg that gives me a 10 percenf offset on a natural resource that I’m using, the savings are he said. “There’s reallty not an issue with justifying it.”

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