Surrey-headquartered Terasen Gas has launched a pilot project with the Columbia Shuswap Regional District to explore the possibility of tapping biogas from the regional landfill site for commercial use.
The Salmon Arm biogas recovery project involves capturing waste methane and upgrading it to pipeline-quality natural gas to heat homes.
The project will involve installing a small facility to recover the raw landfill gas produced by the degradation of municipal solid waste, upgrading the gas and then injecting it into the natural gas distribution system.
Terasen Gas plans to begin construction of the biogas recovery project next spring. Doug Stout, Terasen Gas' vice-president of marketing and business development, said, "Once operational, the upgrading facility will be the first of its kind in the province to use bio-methane directly into a natural gas pipeline."
If successful, the facility would produce approximately 26,000 gigajoules of natural gas per year, which is enough to heat and provide hot water for about 300 homes.
The project was one of nine proposals Terasen Gas announced in the spring in response to a call for clean, renewable energy projects.