Trash to gas: Landfill energy projects increasing

[Joanne98]

Source: AP


LIVERMORE, Calif. (AP) -- Hundreds of trash trucks across California are rumbling down city streets using clean fuel made from a dirty source: garbage.

The fuel is derived from rotting refuse that San Francisco and Oakland residents and businesses have been discarding in the Altamont landfill since 1980. Since November, the methane gas created from decaying detritus at the 240-acre (96-hectare) landfill has been sucked into tubes and sent into an innovative facility that purifies and transforms it into liquefied natural gas.

Almost 500 Waste Management Inc. garbage and recycling trucks run on this new source of environmentally friendly fuel instead of dirty diesel.

In a state that has passed the most stringent greenhouse gas reduction goals in the United States, the climate change benefits of this plant are twofold -- methane from the trash heap is captured before entering the environment and use of the fuel produces less carbon dioxide than conventional gasoline.

"We've built the largest landfill-to-LNG plant in the world; this plant produces 13,000 gallons (49,400 liters) a day of LNG," said Jessica Jones, a landfill manager for Houston-based Waste Management. "It will take 30,000 tons a year of CO2 from the environment."


Read more: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Trash-to-gas-Landfill-energy-apf-1428841701.html?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=3&asset=&ccode=

[JNelson6563]

1. This is awesome!

:toast:

[izquierdista]

2. It is

Imagine, maybe one day they will figure out how to do this directly, without having to bury the garbage in a 200 acre field first.

[guitar man]

5. I can do it already

I have a pretty direct process for turning food into methane....my wife doesn't like it much whe I do though!

:rofl:

[yellowcanine]

6. All that is needed is a way to capture it and you can power your car.

[guitar man]

7. that's what she said

the wife said I could be a one man solution to the energy crisis :rofl:

[liberal N proud]

3. Some places in Europe have been heating with trash for some time

It is about time we get with this. Many landfills are just burning off the gases created by the decomposing trash.

[Roland99]

4. Finally putting that company name to good use

[amandabeech]

8. Using landfill gas to make electricity is simple and relatively inexpensive.

We should definitely do more of this. For landfills too remote from power lines or too small to put in a small generator, we should at least burn the methane to convert it to carbon dioxide because methane is such a powerful greenhouse gas.

One poster noted that Europeans have been burning landfill gas to make electricity. I wonder if the practice has spread to less developed countries. There are so many cities in the less developed world that there is likely to be many, many trash heaps or landfills that capturing and using the methane might really help in the fight against global warming and provide a cheap fuel for electricity generation, cooking or space heating.

Here's another twist on methane generation. In Japan, households sort their garbage into several categories. One category contains plant-based waste, including vegetable food scraps and any type of clippings from gardens or indoor plants. That waste is composted in large containers to make fertilizer and soil amendments. I see no reason why the methane resulting from the decomposition of the plants could not be collected. A similar composting arrangement existed in the San Francisco Bay area at one time. The resulting fertilizer was used in some of the California vineyards with great success. Recycling phosphorus, potassium and nitrogen while making electricity and keeping methane out of the atmosphere is one heck of an environmental triple play!