INNOVATION July-August 2016

2015 ❖ 2016 Project Highlights

Heartland Biogas Facility The Heartland Biogas Facility in northern Colorado is one of the largest of its kind in North America to process organic waste to produce renewable natural gas. Up to 30 semi-truckloads of food waste from restaurants, grocery stores and food manufacturers in the area are shipped to the facility every day. There, the waste is mixed with manure from a local dairy farm to form feedstock for anaerobic digesters to generate raw biogas. Three Greenlane Biogas Totara+ systems, operating in parallel, upgrade as much as 127 cubic metres per minute (4,500 SCFM) of biogas daily to produce pipeline-grade renewable natural gas. The gas is supplied to Colorado’s Sacramento Municipal Utility District through a 20-year gas purchase agreement. Diversion of organic waste to the facility reduces both waste to landfills and greenhouse gas emissions. APEGBC members: Abel Yasells Garcia, P.Eng.; Jean-Michel Logan, P.Eng.; William Taylor, P.Eng.

Mission Critical Emergency Power Upgrades in Vancouver A mission-critical facility completed the first phase of a project to upgrade their existing emergency power system. The project involved constructing a new seismically rated, post-disaster, standby diesel generator plant, complete with a new medium-voltage emergency power distribution system, a fuel-oil supply system, and building infrastructure upgrades. In addition to improving system reliability and redundancy, sustainability was a driving factor in the design, and each generator set was equipped with a diesel emissions reduction system that reduces pollutant levels, such as NO x , by as much as 95 percent. Critical power loads remained fully supported throughout the project by following a detailed engineering design and a carefully managed methods-of-procedure process. APEGBC members, H.H. Angus & Associates Ltd.: Philip Chow, P.Eng., P.E.; Peter Formosi, P.Eng.; Read Jones Christoffersen Ltd.: Dennis Gam, P.Eng.

Landslide Catchment and Deflection Barrier on Transmission Tower 3611

The Interior-to-Lower Mainland Project, energised in December 2015, is the latest component of BC Hydro’s high-voltage transmission line network.The line enhances electricity supply between major generation sites within BC’s Interior and the primary power-consumption area in the Lower Mainland, and crosses complex terrain. Tetra Tech EBA, as part of the design–build team, was charged with ensuring planned tower locations remain safe and stable over the line’s service life. One major challenge was Tower 3611, located in an area of known landslide hazard. Tetra Tech EBA, together with Trumer Schutzbauten Canada Ltd. and Ryzuk Geotechnical Engineering, designed a hybrid landslide catchment and deflection barrier to be installed upslope of the tower to prevent potentially large volumes of debris from impacting the tower. The 5-metre-high, 25-metre-long barrier is designed to resist loads up to 750 kiloNewtons per metre, and is the largest of its kind in Western Canada.

P hoto : E van M artin , P. E ng .

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