BMW is certainly making its presence felt in the ‘green’ efforts made for environment conservation. A few days ago, we talked about the German automaker’s venture into public transportation. And now, as a further push to their already high eco-friendly credentials, BMW is all set to research on extracting hydrogen from methane gas found in a specified local landfill. The extracted hydrogen in turn can be utilized for the company’s fleet of materials handling vehicle (run by fuel cell) down at their plant in Greer, South Carolina.
This North American manufacturing plant is BMW’s only manufacturing facility in the United States. Moreover, it is one of the very few automobile plants that houses majority of the systems under a single roof. Among them, there is also a hydrogen storage and distribution area. Now, BMW plans on revamping this particular area into a full-fledged newer facility. This venture can turn the site into one of the world’s largest center for low emission and fuel cell powered material handling equipment. The multi-million dollar proposal will be envisaged in corresponding steps, with one of them to be funded by South Carolina Research Authority (SCRA).
BMW had dabbled with sustainable endeavors in the past and as a matter of fact they seem to rather have profited from it. The Greer plant has 50 percent of its power already generated from compressed methane gas delivered by a 9.5 mile long pipeline connected to the adjacent Palmetto Landfill. Well, the subsequent figures speak for themselves. According to an estimate, the green system has allowed BMW to reduce carbon emissions by a whopping 92,000 tons per year. Not only that but also from the perspective of pure business, the German automaker had actually saved $5 million per year after the implementation of high efficient technology.
Via: MotorTrend
