Can landfill gas be used as a resource?
Landfill gas is a reliable source of energy because it is generated 24 hours a day, seven days a week. By using landfill gas to produce energy, landfills can significantly reduce their emissions of methane and decrease the need to generate energy from fossil fuels. Landfill-derived methane gas is used primarily in two ways: • As a “direct-use” fuel, methane gas is recovered by a series of wells that have been drilled into a landfill. It is transported via a network of pipes to an on-site gas production facility and then piped to nearby industrial users. Typically, the gas is used to fuel boilers, furnaces, ovens, or other combustion equipment for large energy users. • To generate electricity, recovered methane gas is used to fuel engine-generators that produce electricity on-site at the landfill. This electricity is then sold to a local utility or other electrical consumer.
