Landfill gas is the natural by-product of the decomposition of solid waste in landfills and is comprised primarily of carbon dioxide and methane. By preventing emissions of methane (a powerful greenhouse gas) through the development of landfill gas energy projects, the Landfill Methane Outreach Program (LMOP) helps businesses, states, energy providers, and communities protect the environment and build a sustainable future.
Municipal solid waste landfills are the largest source of human-related methane emissions in the United States, accounting for about 25 percent of these emissions in 2004. At the same time, methane emissions from landfills represent a lost opportunity to capture and use a significant energy resource.
Landfill gas (LFG) is created as solid waste decomposes in a landfill. This gas consists of about 50 percent methane (CH4), the primary component of natural gas, about 50 percent carbon dioxide (CO2), and a small amount of non-methane organic compounds. Methane is a greenhouse gas over 20 times as potent as carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere.
Instead of allowing LFG to escape into the air, it can be captured, converted, and used as an energy source. Using LFG helps to reduce odors and other hazards associated with LFG emissions, and it helps prevent methane from migrating into the atmosphere and contributing to local smog and global climate change.
Nationwide, there are approximately 435 projects that harness landfill gas to produce renewable energy. In 2007 alone, these projects provided over 10.5 billion kilowatt hours of electricity and delivered 79 billion cubic feet per year of landfill gas to corporate and government users, and produced energy equivalent to powering roughly 810,000 homes and heating nearly 547,000 homes each year.
In the year 2006, all operational LFG energy projects in the United States prevented the release of over 20 MMTCE.
- This reduction is the carbon equivalent of removing the emissions from nearly 14 million vehicles on the road or planting nearly 20 million acres of forest for one year.
- These reductions also have the same environmental benefit as preventing the use of over 169 million barrels of oil or offsetting the use of over 356,000 railcars of coal.
The generation of electricity from LFG makes up about two-thirds of the currently operational projects in the U.S. Directly using LFG to offset the use of another fuel (natural gas, coal, fuel oil) is occurring in about one-third of the currently operational projects.
For 2007, LMOP recognized landfill gas energy projects that took innovative approaches to utilize landfill gas from municipal solid waste landfills, deliver environmental and economic benefits directly to the community, and promote landfill gas energy projects locally or nationally.
- Greentree High Btu Landfill Gas Energy Project, Kersey, PA — Project developers used creative financing and applied innovative, state-of-the-art technology to become one of the largest natural gas quality landfill gas energy projects in the country.
- Iris Glen Landfill Gas Energy Project, Johnson City, TN — Natural gas quality landfill gas energy projects are usually limited to landfills with large amounts of gas, but not in Johnson City, Tennessee. There, an engine and boiler use natural gas quality landfill gas to supply steam, electricity, and chilled water to a Veterans Administration hospital, a university, and a civic center.
- Southeastern Chester County Refuse Authority Landfill Gas Energy Project, Chester County, PA — Relying on its talented staff and their motivation to succeed, SECCRA Power forged ahead and developed this landfill gas energy project without the assistance of a third party developer. SECCRA and the community reaped economic benefits that exceeded expectations.
Community Partner of the Year: Greater Lebanon Refuse Authority (GLRA) and PPL Energy Landfill Gas Energy Project, Lebanon, PA — GLRA and PPL created and built a Renewable Energy Education Facility that serves as an educational forum for local, national, and international visitors. With the goal of “empowering our future leaders with green energy,” the project demonstrates the power of renewable energy from landfill gas, wind, and solar energy.
Industry Partner of the Year: Ameresco, Framingham, MA — Ameresco continues to show leadership by consistently developing innovative and flexible landfill gas energy projects. Three new projects in 2007, including a small, creative, 800 kilowatt project, demonstrate Ameresco’s ability to provide long-term solutions to landfills and the communities they serve.
Energy Partners of the Year: Alameda Power & Telecom and City of Palo Alto, Watsonville, CA — Two community-based utilities actively pursued landfill gas opportunities in their own backyard. Tapping renewable energy from local landfills helps them meet renewable energy goals and provide green power to customers who have signed up in record numbers.
Endorser of the Year: CIFAL, Atlanta, GA — Bringing together local government officials and solid waste experts from around the world, CIFAL-Atlanta co-hosted with LMOP the Greening Solid Waste Practices workshop in September 2007. The forum allowed solid waste professionals to explore best practices for implementing landfill gas energy projects to reduce methane emissions, provide a clean, renewable form of energy, and stimulate the local economy.
This post based on information found at the LMOP wfebsite.
I would argue that municipal sewage treatment plants rival or exceed the methane emissions of a landfill... same with yard waste processing (where they make way more mulch and topsoil products than can get used)... trouble is most of them don't try to capture the methane. It's quite a shame that we aren't burning all that methane to make electricity.
Posted by: kballs | January 12, 2008 at 08:45 PM
Anaerobic digestion (AD) at WWTP use closed tanks. The biogas which is a mixture of CH4, CO2, and H2S is either used to heat boilers or flared as required by regulations.
Many WWTP have gensets but I do not know how much electricity is produced.
Posted by: Kit P | January 12, 2008 at 11:06 PM
What I'm saying is that though many of the newest sewage treatment plants do capture and burn the gases, there are still a lot of older plants that do not yet have the equipment to do this (not to mention a lot of people with septic tanks that don't capture gases either - and I imagine most would have enough methane+hydrogen to at least run a gas cooktop/oven if they installed capture systems).
Also there are many yard waste compost facilities out there and most do not capture gases (we have some local ones in the Seattle area that have actually been sued many times because they stink up the whole area). Combine that with the city of Seattle mandating that food scraps and shredded documents go in the yard waste bin... there is not only a perfect opportunity to capture waste gases at yard waste composting facilities, it's actually environmentally and economically irresponsible not to.
Posted by: kballs | January 13, 2008 at 04:17 PM
All AD at WWTP (old and new) either use the biogas or flare it. While methane is not toxic, H2S is very toxic and the odor would be intolerable. Which is a very good reason to not mess around with your septic system to save energy. I just did some pluming and vented my septic tank to the house for a very short period of time. Being exposed to H2S lead to rapid desensitization to the odor and then death. Being overcome and drowning in manure would not be a good way to die.
The City of Seattle did a study and was surprised to find that garbage disposals was the best environmental choice for low income housing. The food scrapes end up at the WWTP producing energy. Biosolids (aka, sewage sludge) and solid waste is shipped east. The biosolids are very beneficial in semi-arid regions and Roosevelt landfill has a very large LFG generating plant.
The City of Seattle has a much larger budget for greenwashing than it does to solve environmental problems. Seattle dumps their waste other places and the credit for using the waste wisely goes to others.
Composting is the best renewable energy project because of the organic fertilizer produced and the energy saved trucking the waste to the landfill. It can be down aerobically or anaerobically. Aerobic compost that has odor problems has not been managed correctly. They should not be producing methane.
As far as the lawsuits are concerned, it is just evidence that no good environmental deed goes unpunished. Almost every environmental lawsuits that I have significant information about has been baseless. There have been several real problems. One case involved dumping heavy metals in compost which was a criminal act. The other problem is composting will not break down persistent organic compounds. Proving that compost does have something bad in it is not easy in a world where zero risk world.
Posted by: Kit P | January 13, 2008 at 07:36 PM
I guess it's just too dangerous for anyone or any company to implement gas recycling in septic systems. We should just continue venting the waste gases forever. Oh wait, they already capture gas from pit toilets and use it for cooking in 3rd world villages, I guess it's not impossible.
You illustrate my point about sewage treatment, they either burn it for electricity (what they should always do) or in older systems they flare it (which is a COMPLETE WASTE OF ENERGY). They should mandate that it always be burned for electricity or sent into the local natural gas system (unless there is some emergency where they just have to flare it).
Also, yard waste: decaying plants release methane (along with other gases like methyl mercaptan or sulfur dioxide which are the parts that stink)! Especially when they've been buried in a massive mountain of mulch for months at a time (which is the norm for compost and organic materials facilities - they even catch fire sometimes because of the heat created by the decay process and microbes).
Composting the way they do now does not really save any significant energy. There is no energy saved trucking the waste to a landfill because you're just trucking it to a compost site instead. The amount of fertilizer produced is not that large yet, else we would be seeing a lot less synthetic fertilizers in use. You are right about what they could do (for fertilizer production), but they need to work on it more, and I think they need to make it more of a closed system so they can control the process better and not release waste gases without burning them for energy and/or converting them to less harmful gases.
My whole point is, close the loop, reuse all waste wherever possible. I'm not trying to show what's possible or talk about some future technology, I'm saying we're not reusing the waste everywhere it is possible with current technology yet.
Posted by: kballs | January 14, 2008 at 10:08 PM
The ideas that kballs is talking about are fine but a little more technical knowledge is needed. Third world use AD is a great improvement in in the sanitary condition of third world countries. Unfortunately there is a particularity serious pathogen bacteria in the US called the personal injury trial attorney. Capturing all that wasted energy is not impossible just harder than you might think.
The nitrogen to carbon ratio of bacteria is 20:1 and 10:1 for most other organic life. Growing bacteria stores nitrogen in the soil until the can be used for plant plant growth. Ammonia is energy we just do not use it very often for energy because it is more valuable for making food. That is what I am calling closing the loop.
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Dear Friend,
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Best regards
Posted by: Foto Unik | March 30, 2010 at 03:55 PM
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These are all good programs but people need to remember to reduce, reuse, recycle!
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Is the LMOP still around?
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Are there large landfills in PA? I see a few projects based there mentioned in this article, or maybe they're just doing a great
job at trying to counteract the negative effects of the gas that is released.
Posted by: parking sensor system | December 06, 2011 at 05:37 PM
So great that people are working on this, the less methane released, the better!!
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Aw I wish there were one of these good landfill projects in Los Angeles- we could use them!
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I never realized there were so many projects geared at using this 'waste' gas. Wonderful!
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