Alza, city sign gas deal Alza, city sign gas deal (December 10, 2004)

Project converts methane to power for buildings

By Roseanne G. Pereira

The task of converting landfill gas to usable energy began last Monday when the city of Mountain View and Alza Corp. broke ground on a new project that will convert the methane gas emitted by the city's Shoreline landfill to help power Alza's Charleston Road facilities.

"The renewable energy source will reduce the overall energy demand for the area," said Gregg Hosfeldt, business manager of the public works program for Mountain View.

The city will earn at least $100,000 from the partnership initially, Hosfeldt added. The contract between Mountain View and Alza calls for a 15-year partnership with later options to renew.

Though city representatives mark this as an example of a successful public-private collaboration, they have no future agreements lined up with other companies for the landfill emissions issue because, as Hosfeldt pointed out, "There will be no gas left."

According to Hosfeldt, the city council was "really looking for some way to use the vast majority or all of the landfill gas" and feels fortunate that the agreement with Alza came through.

The landfill gas project will be funded by Alza and involves building additional pipelines that carry gas from the landfill to company grounds. Three engines at different locations on the Alza property will then convert the gas into electricity. The pipeline will be completed by mid-March 2005.

Come September 2005, Alza employees will be using electricity and drinking water heated from the landfill's methane. Eighty-five percent of Alza's six largest buildings will be powered from the landfill gas. And the new system will be both environmentally beneficial and "financially attractive" for the company, said Ellen Rose, Alza's director of corporate communications.

According to Alza President Michael Jackson, the project is a "double whammy" because it involves taking methane, a greenhouse gas normally harmful to the atmosphere, and making something good out of it.

Additionally, harvesting methane gas through cogeneration is better for the environment than traditional energy sources like oil and coal because it releases less carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. According to Alza, the project will reduce carbon dioxide emissions by about 17 millions pounds over the first ten years of the project.

According to Jackson, the project is also beneficial to Alza because it makes the company independent of PG&E and is the equivalent of having an emergency power unit, an important safeguard when conducting laboratory research.

The project is part of a larger goal by Alza's parent company, Johnson & Johnson, to reduce carbon dioxide gases at its facilities nationwide by seven percent by 2010.

E-mail Roseanne G. Pereira at rpereira@mv-voice.com

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