ROCHESTER, N.H., Jan. 2 (UPI) -- Work has begun on a pipeline to transport methane from a landfill in Rochester, N.H., to the University of New Hampshire campus in Durham.

Contractor R.H. White Construction Co. is building the 12.7-mile pipeline to transport recovered methane gas. The $15 million project will purify methane gas from a landfill at Waste Management (NYSE:WMI) of New Hampshire Inc.'s Turnkey Recycling and Environmental Enterprise facility in Rochester, Associated Construction Publications reported.

Once the gas has been purified, it will be piped to the UNH campus and used to provide electricity.

The pipeline is scheduled to be completed and gas flowing to the campus by late 2008. University officials say substituting landfill gas for natural gas at the institution's co-generation plant, the primary source of heat and electricity for the 5 million-square-foot Durham campus, will stabilize fluctuating energy costs that have doubled in the last five years.

Waste Management has more than 100 gas-to-energy projects under way at 100 of its 281 landfills. The company expects to create an additional 60 renewable energy facilities to bring its generation to more than 700 megawatts of renewable energy, enough to power 700,000 homes or replace more than 8 million barrels of oil.