Cogeneration Plant

A Cogeneration Plant is used to produce power by using a heat engine or a power station, which will generate both heat and power. These plants let off a lot of heat from a process called electricity generation, from there they can released into the environment through cooling towers.  It's most commonly used in mills like paper mills because they use steam and electricity.

The Cogeneration Plant at UNH Durham uses "a landfill gas to energy project that uses purified methane gas from a nearby landfill to power the campus" (Potier).    In addition to the actual plant they also have a 12.7 mile pipeline that runs from the landfill to their Cogeneration Plant.

There are two parts to the system.  First the gas is collected through many pipelines.  Next the gas is purified and compressed.  After it's compressed it travels into the pipeline to the Cogeneration Plant, once at the power plant it will replace the natural gas.  The plant also captures the heat that usually gets lost when it's used to produce electricity ant uses that to heat the campus.  

http://intelligenpower.com/whatiscogen.htm
http://www.unh.edu/users/unh/admin/sustain/climate_ed/cogen_landfillgas.html
http://www2.prnewswire.com/mnr/UNHLandfillProject/37840/