BMW studies use of landfill gas

By Dick Hughes  

JULY 28, 2011 11:09 a.m. (0)

BMW and the South Carolina Research Authority have begun the first phase of determining the technical and economic feasibility of converting methane gas from a landfill into hydrogen fuel to power the automaker’s entire fleet of material-handling vehicles at its Spartanburg plant.

“This landfill gas-to-hydrogen project at BMW will seek to demonstrate a first-of-its-kind solution that will serve as model for other private sector companies,” said Bill Mahoney, chief executive officer of SCRA, which is funding the first stage at an estimated cost of $1 million.

In later stages, the company and collaborative private and public partners will assist in creating the infrastructure necessary to store the hydrogen, create fuel stations and equip vehicles with systems to use it.

James Warner, policy director for the Fuel Cell & Hydrogen Energy Association in Washington, said the technology for converting landfill methane to hydrogen is established, but he knows of no one using it on the commercial scale BMW anticipates.

There have been several successful demonstration projects converting gas from waste water, sewage, animal waste and landfills into hydrogen and “landfill is one of the particular abundant” sources, Warner said.

“This is really very exciting,” he said.

In a pilot program, BMW already uses commercially produced hydrogen to store in cells and then convert into electric energy to power 100 forklifts, tuggers and stackers in its new assembly hall for the BMW X3 produced at Spartanburg.

“Success of this new project will allow BMW to transition from the pilot-scale system into a full-scale system capable of supporting the largest single-site deployment of fuel cell material handling equipment in the world,” BMW said.

“In the spirit of continuous improvement, we are always pursuing additional sustainable methods of capturing renewable energy, including our existing source of landfill gas,” said Josef Kerscher, president of BMW manufacturing.

Since 2003, BMW has been using methane gas collected, cleaned and compressed from a local landfill to power more than 50 percent of BMW’s total energy requirements.

The company invested $12 million to upgrade the methane-gas project in 2009 and says it annually reduces CO2 emissions by 92,000 tons and saves about $5 million in energy costs.

BMW also is participating in two projects with the Department of Energy to develop efficient storage of hydrogen as a potential energy source “to achieve long-range zero-emission vehicles on the roads across America.”