Engineering Students Show UPS Benefits of Landfill Gas
The company can save $7 million in six years by adding power from landfill gas, according to a student team from the University of Michigan Ross School of Business.
UPS could save more than $7 million by harnessing landfill gas for energy, according to a team of students from the University of Michigan Ross School of Business.
Thomas Evans, Bruna Ferro and David Heiser, students in the School's Tauber Institute for Global Operations, took first place in the Spotlight! program, which teams students up with companies to work on solving real problems and saving money.
The UPS team investigated the how the company could benefit from using landfill gas to provide energy by looking at UPS' energy use, local energy and renewables markets, billing structures for energy types and costs and benefits associated with landfill gas.
UPS' Worldport worldwide air hub in Louisville, Ky., consumes more than 30 megawatts during peak operations. The facility is situated near Waste Management's Outer Loop Recycling and Disposal Facility, which already funnels landfill gas for use as energy to two other customers. The student team proposed that UPS build a 10-megawatt combustion turbine to generate electricity, powered by landfill gas from the Waste Management site.
The team predicts UPS could save $7.26 million and that the system would pay for itself in less than six years. However, the savings are contingent on the federal alternative energy Production Tax Credit.
Other student teams in the Spotlight! program, which immerses them within companies for 14-week internships, worked with Alcoa Howmet Dover Castings, Ametek, Boeing Co., BorgWarner, Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center of Seattle, Cisco Systems, Cummins, Dell, Dow Chemical Co., Eaton Corp., General Electric Aviation, Intel Corp., Pfizer, Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems, Schlumberger, Steelcase and Target.
Thomas Evans, Bruna Ferro and David Heiser, students in the School's Tauber Institute for Global Operations, took first place in the Spotlight! program, which teams students up with companies to work on solving real problems and saving money.
The UPS team investigated the how the company could benefit from using landfill gas to provide energy by looking at UPS' energy use, local energy and renewables markets, billing structures for energy types and costs and benefits associated with landfill gas.
UPS' Worldport worldwide air hub in Louisville, Ky., consumes more than 30 megawatts during peak operations. The facility is situated near Waste Management's Outer Loop Recycling and Disposal Facility, which already funnels landfill gas for use as energy to two other customers. The student team proposed that UPS build a 10-megawatt combustion turbine to generate electricity, powered by landfill gas from the Waste Management site.
The team predicts UPS could save $7.26 million and that the system would pay for itself in less than six years. However, the savings are contingent on the federal alternative energy Production Tax Credit.
Other student teams in the Spotlight! program, which immerses them within companies for 14-week internships, worked with Alcoa Howmet Dover Castings, Ametek, Boeing Co., BorgWarner, Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center of Seattle, Cisco Systems, Cummins, Dell, Dow Chemical Co., Eaton Corp., General Electric Aviation, Intel Corp., Pfizer, Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems, Schlumberger, Steelcase and Target.
