New facility in Wayne County aims to turn waste into renewable energy

WAYNE COUNTY, Mich. – A new facility in Riverview is opening with the aim of turning waste into renewable energy.

The $70 million project funded by DTE Vantage and NextEra was first envisioned several years ago.

“As the amount of biogas continues to grow, NextEra and DTE decided, let’s put this investment in, so five or six years ago, we started planning ahead for this opportunity,” said DTE Vantage Vice President Kevin Dobson.

Dobson said the opportunity is to turn the biogas into renewable natural gas.

“As waste comes in, and waste is accumulated in landfill, it naturally breaks down, the decomposes, and as that waste decomposes, it creates a biogas, and that’s a pretty harmful biogas. It’s a greenhouse gas. It’s mostly made up of methane and carbon dioxide—pretty harmful,” said Dobson.

There are pumps in the landfill that bring that biogas to a machinery and then upgrade it to pipeline-quality natural gas. This is done by separating carbon dioxide, nitrogen and other elements until it’s pure methane. This is not only beneficial for the environment but also financially beneficial for DTE Vantage.

“Renewable natural gas—it’s very popular,” said Dobson. “It’s been in high demand, and so we’re actually able to generate great financial investments.”

While DTE Vantage is separate from the utility company, they are able to team up to create more electricity through this technology.

“We also have the capability to generate renewable electricity. And so, a DTE electric power is in a position where it needs more electricity on its grid. They can call us up, and we can provide up to six grand—lots of renewable electricity.”

With this facility up and running, DTE Vantage said it’s the equivalent of moving over 17,000 cars off the road every year.