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The use of landfill gas is considered a green fuel source because it offsets the use of environmentally damaging fuels such as oil or natural gas, destroys the heat-trapping gas methane, and the gas is generated by deposits of waste that are already in place. 450 of the 2,300 landfills in the United States have operational landfill gas ...
These projects collect the methane gas and treat it, so it can be used for electricity or upgraded to pipeline-grade gas. (Methane gas has twenty-one times the global warming potential of carbon dioxide). [21] For example, in the U.S., Waste Management uses landfill gas as an energy source at 110 landfill gas-to-energy facilities. This energy ...
[3] [4] Reducing methane emissions by capturing and utilizing the gas can produce simultaneous environmental and economic benefits. [1] [5] Since the Industrial Revolution, concentrations of methane in the atmosphere have more than doubled, and about 20 percent of the warming the planet has experienced can be attributed to the gas. [6]
These gases can include methane (CH 4), carbon dioxide (CO 2), hydrogen (H 2), and volatile organic compounds (there are approximately 500 others that can be present in trace forms) from the waste on site and its degradation over time. Steps must be taken to prevent this migration from the landfill site as it might enter buildings in the vicinity.
Monitoring of the landfill gas itself can be used diagnostically. When there is concern regarding the possibility of an ongoing subsurface oxidation event, or landfill fire, the presence in the landfill gas of compounds that are more stable at the high temperatures of such an event (above 500 °C) can be evidence for such a process occurring.
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The goal of the EPLGP is to reduce greenhouse emissions. The following schematic illustrates the process of capturing and recycling the gas emissions: As illustrated above, (1) wells installed in the landfill collect the methane (CH 4). (2) Next, high density pipes connected to the wells transfer the CH 4 to the blower.
The Landfill Methane Outreach Program (LMOP) promotes the use of landfill gas, a naturally occurring byproduct of decaying landfill waste, as a sustainable energy source. [74] Besides reducing emissions, landfill gas utilization has also been credited for reductions in air pollution, improvements to health and safety conditions, and economic ...