The Waste Management landfill and recycling facility in Rochester handles a lot of waste, but its practices are hardly wasteful.

The massive landfill that holds tons of trash is tapped for the methane and carbon dioxide gas that is produced when the trash inside the landfill decomposes. About 40 percent of the gas is processed, turned into energy and sold to electric companies to power 9,000 homes.

But more than half the gas is simply burned off, or flared, because the facility's two power plants can't process it all. When Waste Management started looking for a better way to use the leftover gas, it turned to one of its neighbors, the University of New Hampshire.

Three years later, they had crafted a plan to pump the gas through underground pipes to the Durham campus, where it would be turned into heat and electricity at the school's two-year-old cogeneration plant. The proximity of the campus, the availability of land for laying the pipes, and the needs of both groups helped the deal fall into place, said Paul Chamberlin, UNH's assistant vice president of energy and campus development.

When the pipes go online this fall, the school will become the first in the country to use landfill gas as its primary energy source. The project, called EcoLine, will power and heat up to 85 percent of the campus, sharply reduce the school's carbon emissions and shave thousands of dollars off its energy bill each year.

The school is locked into a renewable 10-year contract for the gas with Waste Management, which will charge only a percentage of typical market costs for commercial gas, said Alan Davis, Waste Management's district manager. The university and facility declined to say what the percentage is, and it's hard to say how much money the school will save each year on gas costs.

"My retort always is, 'Tell me what natural gas is going to cost for the next 20 years,' " Chamberlin said.

Money matters

A study done by the university showed that paying for EcoLine would save more money in the long run than doing nothing, and the school has projected the $45 million project will pay itself off in 10 years. That's an anticipated savings of $4.5 million each year.

The university's board of trustees authorized the spending - no student fees or state funding was used - to pay for the 12.7 miles of pipes, a new plant for processing and purifying the gas at the landfill in Rochester, and a second generator, or turbine, at the school's cogeneration plant.

The plant was built just a few year ago and began operating in 2006. It uses commercial natural gas - and sometimes oil, as a back-up measure - to power and heat the 5 million-square-foot campus.

The plant already houses one 7.9 megawatt turbine - Chamberlin compared it to a jet engine - that turns the gas into electricity for the campus. It also captures heat from the exhaust - normally lost during the production of electricity - and uses it to heat water. The hot water is then distributed through more pipes to heat classroom buildings and dorms.

Previously, the university produced heat with 50-year-old boilers and had to buy the electricity.

"We get a lot of bang for our buck with this," Chamberlin said.

By next fall, the facility will be fueled primarily by the purified and enriched landfill gas, shifting the school's reliance from fossil fuels to a renewable resource. The process is more environmentally friendly, more efficient and offers major economic advantages, Chamberlin said.

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