Methane Gas Going into Diapers

Date: March 8, 2008

Source: News Room

The Three Rivers Solid Waste Authority (TRSWA) recently began shipping landfill gas from its landfill in Jackson, SC through a 15.8-mile pipeline to a Kimberly-Clark Corp. manufacturing facility in Beech Island. There it will be combusted to produce steam which powers the production of well-known brands such as Kleenex facial tissue, Huggies diapers and Pull-Ups training pants. The $13 million project which is currently being tested is expected to be fully operational by April 1. Illinois-based Siemens Building Technologies Inc. partnered in the project by building and designing the gas collection facility and pipeline. Kimberly-Clark has signed a 15-year purchase agreement with TRSWA which caps the price of gas at $6.5 per million BTUs while it guarantees a price of at least $4.5 per million BTU's. At current prices, Kimberly-Clark could save as much as $500,000 per year.

TRSWA was formed in 1994 when six counties asked their regional Lower Savannah Council of Governments for help in designing a Subtitle D landfill in an effort to address solid waste management demands. It is now a nine-county collaborative effort including Orangeburg, Calhoun, Bamberg, Aiken, Allendale, Barnwell, Saluda, Edgefield and McCormick counties. The counties all signed a 30-year service commitment, which was needed to borrow $21 million to build the landfill which opened July 1, 1998.

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