Hatch Hill LFGTE
This clever project consisted of a new gas dehydration & cleaning skid feeding landfill gas (methane) to a new 550kW Kraft containerized generator. Newtility was responsible for electrical design of the power plant, equipment selection, process control, electrical system protection, and automation. We were also responsible for a variety of smaller tasks, including leachate pump VFD replacements and backup generator repairs & maintenance.
Project Highlights
- Electrical Engineering
- Control Systems Engineering
- Process design
- Control Panel design & fabrication
- Startup & Commissioning
The Challenge
Landfill Gas to Energy (LFGTE) projects tend to be small, yet subject to the same technical challenges that larger plants are…and then some: combustible gas, complex process controls, changing fuel conditions, wellfield management and flare integration. The existing landfill gas (LFG) collection system utilized a blower system to feed LFG into a candlestick flare, where is was destructed. The proposed location of the project was roughly 1700′ away from the flare, and the Operations Building would serve not only as the control room for the power plant but also as an office and break room for City of Augusta employees. The facility would also serve as an education center for the project, which added an additional layer to the design goals.
The design challenge was to build a cost-effective power plant that better utilized the energy contained in the landfill gas presently being wasted in a flare. It would need to be reliable, automated, and satisfy a wide variety of technical and social requirements.
Our Solution
Newtility worked with the teams at Woodard & Curran and Kraft Power, carefully designing the project to meet the City of Augusta’s needs. The result was a pair of containerized equipment packages, electrical interconnect equipment, and the Newtility BOS control system tying it all together.
The enclosed gas handling skid contains the necessary compression, heats, cooling, filters, piping, instrumentation and control equipment to collect the raw landfill gas, process it by removing water and contaminants, and prepare it for use as fuel to the engine. The enclosed engine container includes a 500kW generator driven by a specialized MAN engine designed to operate on landfill gas. The Newtility BOS control system manages the operation of gas collection, dehydration, and engine operation. The control system utilizes a traditional touch-screen HMI interface for real-time monitoring and control of the plant.
Newtility also developed a fun, animated, kid-friendly educational display that lives on a large TV screen in the Operations Building, showing visitors how landfills, anaerobic digestion, and the power generating project works. Hopefully this is helping educate and inspire the next generation of renewable energy professionals!
Hopefully this is helping educate and inspire the next generation of renewable energy professionals!