Company News

Novo Gramacho Landfill: Brazil

Steve Wilburn, CEO of FirmGreen, Inc. stands atop the Novo Gramacho landfill, pointing toward the nearby Petrobras facility that will use cleaned biogas from the landfill as fuel.

FirmGreen's equipment is arriving at a site located adjacent the landfill, where it will be assembled to process the landfill's biogas so that it becomes clean biomethane fuel, with an energy content equivalent to natural gas.

Aerial View of the Project

At the top of the photo, you can see Novo Gramacho — the landfill depicted in the Wasteland movie. This large landfill is the source of the biogas that will be cleaned using FirmGreen's green technology, currently being installed at Gás Verde's biogas purification plant.

The yellow line represents the route of the pipeline that will transport cleaned gas to a nearby customer — in this case, Petrobras.

The Pipeline is Underway

The illustrations at right depict the process of boring beneath road & the waterway along the pipeline route visible in the previous image.

Constructing the pipeline that will deliver cleaned biomethane fuel is all a part of the project, which will help improve air quality at the landfill while making beneficial use of its waste gas to provide power for a nearby business operation.

Construction is Well Underway

The building visible at left in this photo will house an electrical substation at the Gás Verde biogas purification facility.

Other structures (shown in right photo) at the site will soon house other equipment that is part of the biogas processing operation.

Equipment Arrives

FirmGreen's equipment has traveled from Dublin, Ohio to Houston, Texas, then by cargo ship to the port of Rio De Janeiro.

After arrival in Port Rio, the equipment was inspected and then loaded onto trucks for the last leg of the journey to the Gás Verde facility, located at the Novo Gramacho landfill.

As it arrives, the team in Brazil is ready to install and assemble the biogas purification equipment that will produce biomethane. The cleaned biogas will then be transported by pipeline (shown in slide #2) to help operate the Petrobras plant just "down the hill".

Safely On The Ground

The Gás Verde site in Brazil has been under construction while the equipment was fabricated in the USA, and is ready for equipment installation.

The crew in Brazil is making sure each skid of the biogas purification equipment is offloaded safely and installed in the proper location.  

Equipment Installation

In October, concrete pads stood empty, awaiting unloading of the remaining equipment.

The equipment visible in this photos are compressor coolers — part of the biogas processing plant that will produce pipeline quality natural gas from dirty landfill methane.

Installation Progress

By mid-December, significant progress on construction of the biogas facility is visible.

Most of the equipment has now arrived at the site of the biogas processing plant and is being carefully assembled and installed.

The tall, cylindrical components beyond the workers, to the right, are "purge vessels" that filter impurities out of the biogas.

Substation Progress

The small inset image shows the electrical substation construction progress as of late October 2011.

Visible in the large photo is the same structure as of mid-December. Still under black wraps inside the building are power transformers.

Bird's eye view of site

VIsible in the foreground of the photo is the frame for the structure that will house electrical cabling being routed from the substation to biogas processing plant.

Beyond the electrical structure, the biogas purification equipment is being mounted on the concrete pads.

Check Back Soon!

We will post more photos as the facility assembly progresses and becomes operational, so check back for updates.

Read more about this project
View "Starting Point: Ohio" slideshow

Find out more about natural gas (methane) fuel, and what's different about renewable vs. traditional methane fuels. Find out why FirmGreen's gCNG® — natural gas from renewable sources, is environmentally sound energy.
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