Morris Township, NJ, February 7--Honeywell recently received the Landfill Methane Outreach Program Project of the Year award for 2004 from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for an innovative landfill gas recovery initiative.
The award was presented to Honeywell, in partnership with Enerdyne Power Systems and Waste Management Inc., during the LMOP Conference in Baltimore.
In 2002, Honeywell, Enerdyne and Waste Management teamed up to construct a 23-mile pipeline from the WMI Atlantic Waste landfill in Waverly, Va. to the Honeywell Nylon plant in Hopewell, Va.
When the pipeline was completed in January 2004, it began flowing methane-rich landfill gas from the Waverly site to the Honeywell plant, reducing the site's demand for natural gas fuel by 15 percent. Consuming LFG also minimizes or eliminates flaring of gas at the landfill site, reducing the region's air emissions of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas.
"The reduction in carbon dioxide air emissions over the life of the landfill, for example, is equivalent to planting 5,544 square miles of trees and saving 1.2 billion gallons of oil,"said Keith Togna, site energy leader for the Hopewell plant.
The Honeywell Hopewell plant, which began operations in 1915 as a munitions facility, is now the world's largest single-site producer of caprolactam and ammonium sulfate. Caprolactam is the primary feedstock in the production of nylon polymer used in carpet fibers, plastics and films. Ammonium sulfate is used in fertilizer applications.
