 | |  General Motors Ft. Wayne Truck Assembly Plant
| Location | Fort Wayne, Indiana | | End User(s) | General Motors Truck Assembly Plant | | Sector(s) | Auto manufacturing | | Landfill(s) | MacBeth Road Landfill | | Landfill Size | 9.1 million tons waste-in-place (1999) | | Project Type | Boiler | | Project Size | 1,750 standard cubic feet per minute (scfm) | | Savings | $500,000/year | | Environmental Benefits | Carbon sequestered annually by 5,000 acres of pine or fir forests, annual greenhouse gas emissions from 4,000 passenger vehicles, or carbon dioxide emissions from 50,700 barrels of oil consumed. Annual energy savings equate to heating 5,700 homes. Estimated emissions reductions of 0.006 million metric tons of carbon equivalents. | | LMOP Partners Involved | CPL Systems, Inc., General Motors Corporation, Republic Services, Inc., Toro Energy, Inc. |
General Motors continued its commitment to reducing total energy usage by 25 percent when it launched its third landfill gas energy (LFGE) project–this one at its Fort Wayne Assembly Plant. "Landfill gas is a clean-burning fuel and makes a perfect power source for the plant's boilers," says Dave Shenefield, Site Utilities Manager, where 3,000 employees crank out GM Sierras and Chevy Silverados. Boilers firing landfill gas (LFG) produce steam to heat and cool the assembly plant and run process equipment.
The project's highlights include:
- 450,000 million British thermal units per year.
- 8-mile pipeline delivers LFG from Macbeth Road Landfill.
- LFG supplies about 16 percent of the plant's energy needs, saving $500,000 annually.
- Positive public reaction.
- LMOP Industry Partner of Year awarded to GM in 2003.
General Motors, National Serv-All, and Toro Energy LLC, of Dallas developed the project in a true partnership. Toro installed the pipeline used to deliver the methane gas from Serv-All's MacBeth Road Landfill to the plant. To burn the methane, Toro also modified a boiler at the plant. Serv-All installed the wells and the collection system necessary to capture the methane.
The overall success of this project was due to the combined team effort of GM, Toro Energy, and National Serv-All, working together in the spirit of environmental stewardship. Public perception toward a project such as this has been extremely positive and the plant has truly gained from this process, both environmentally and in energy savings. —Dave Shenefield, Site Utilities Manager Last Updated: 8/18/2008
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