Overview
This 6.5-megawatt combined heat-and-power system supplies
electricity, steam, and chilled water to Coca-Cola's Atlanta Syrup
Plant. The system provides 100 percent of the plant's energy needs,
offsetting the use of fossil fuels. Coca-Cola expects the system to
reduce its carbon footprint by approximately 20,400 tons
annually.
As the project's developer, owner, and operator, we collaborated
with partners including Republic Services, Atlanta Gas Light, GE,
Veolia Energy North America and EIV Capital Management to acquire
the landfill-gas rights, secure financing, negotiate agreements,
and oversee all permitting, regulatory compliance, design,
construction and operations.
The Coca-Cola project includes a vacuum-collection system that
captures methane gas from a Georgia-based landfill, Hickory Ridge,
owned and operated by Republic Services. Methane, a greenhouse gas
that is more than 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide, is
naturally produced as organic waste breaks down anaerobically in
landfills. Our system converts the gas to clean-burning fuel and
delivers it to the combined heat-and-power facility (also called a
cogeneration, or cogen, plant) via a six-mile pipeline, owned by
Atlanta Gas Light.
At the cogen plant -- which is located adjacent to Coca-Cola's
facility -- three GE reciprocating engine generators use the gas as
a primary fuel source to produce energy. Three Kickham
heat-recovery steam generators convert the engines' heat exhaust
into steam. A York steam-turbine-driven chiller uses the steam to
produce chilled water.