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Comprehensive Revie w of S olid W aste Collection and Disposal Options v2.1 183 10/22/12 13.0 ALTERNATIVE TECHNOLO GIES – COLLABORATION WITH AREA INSTITUTIO NS 13.1 UNIVERSITIES Another waste management option for the Town is to pursue the implementation of Waste Conversion (WC) technologies in collaboration with area universities. Chapel Hill is located in the Research Triangle, so named in 1959 with the creation of Research Triangle Park, a research park between Durham and Raleigh. "The Triangle" is anchored by Duke University (Duke), North Carolina State University (NCSU), and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC). Each university has its distinctive character and long-term sustainability program. The following section briefly includes a general summary of current sustainability and solid waste management programs at the three universities and initial discussions with their sustainability directors to gauge the level of interest in collaborating with the Town on WC technologies. Several of the projects described below provide flagship examples of the possibilities that may spring from successful collaboration between WC technology vendors, university research resources, and private industry. Particularly, SCS believes collaborative resources within the Town are optimal for development of anaerobic digestion of organic waste with cooperation from UNC Chapel Hill, based on recent collaborative success in this technology by Duke. 13.1.1 Duke Uni versity Duke has developed a Climate Action Plan that will guide the University towards carbon neutrality by 2024. As part of that effort, Duke University established The Duke Carbon Offsets Initiative (DCOI) to help meet the University’s carbon neutrality commitment. The DCOI’s mission is to develop local, state, and regional carbon offset projects that yield significant benefits beyond greenhouse gas emission reductions. Benefits the DCOI looks for in projects are additional environmental and public health protection, job creation opportunities, energy savings, and habitat protection. For example, Duke University and Duke Energy have partnered to pilot an innovative system for managing hog waste that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions, generate renewable energy, and substantially eliminate a host of pollutants and issues associated with the waste from swine farms, including odors, ammonia, nutrients and pathogens. This system is located at Loyd Ray Farms, an 8,600-head swine finishing facility in Yadkin County, NC 23. It is intended to serve as a model for other hog farms seeking to manage waste and develop on-farm renewable power. The project involves the capture of methane generated by the hog waste. Hog waste generated at the farm is directed into a lagoon which acts as an anaerobic digester. The decomposing hog waste generates methane gas which is captured and collected under a plastic cover over the lagoon/anaerobic digester. The gas collected under the digester cover is used to power a 65-kW microturbine, the electricity from which is used to support the operation of the innovative waste 23 http://sustainability.duke.edu/carbon_offsets/Projects/loydray.html