I assume you are referring to landfill gas recovery? We are not subject matter experts in that field, although you are right – it is a significant waste source with recoverable potential. Do be aware though that the amount of energy that is theoretically available from such sources is constrained by the amount of energy in our solid waste (which then bio-degrades to methane when stored in a landfill). As noted at the start, that works out to 1.7 quads of total opportunity, or 1.7% of total US energy use. Not a small number, but not nearly as large as the other big energy waste streams either.

Generally speaking, it is a pretty easy gas to recover – it is a very clean gas, amenable to combustion without additional processing in off-the-shelf generation with comparatively low capital costs (reciprocating engines, gas turbines, etc.)

The challenges relate primarily to collection, both in time and in space – from a business perspective, it more closely resembles an oil/gas play than a power play since you have to “drill” and collect the gas, bring it to a common location for the power generator and then have a good understanding of the lifetime of the gas production curve (since the landfill will eventually stop producing gas).

We are well beyond our expertise to provide much more detail, but hopefully that answers your high-level question?

I don’t hear, or read much about methane gas extraction. It would seem to be an obvious choice for the majority of municipalities to pursue. Why is this not the case? Am I missing something?

Also, I did have a couple of questions pertaining to this technology;

1. Are there high initial capitol investment and/or operating costs for gas extraction, processing and transmission?

2. Can the gas be used “as-is” from the landfill, or must there be additional processing to make is “useable”.

3. Are there any industry accepted calculations to determine the percentage of methane extracted?