At the January 2008 Landfill Methane Outreach Program (LMOP) Conference and Project Expo in Washington, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) formally recognized 19 partners from 12 states for excellence in developing landfill gas energy projects that turned landfills into community assets, cut greenhouse gas emissions and created renewable energy.

“By turning waste into wealth, together we are building a clean and plentiful supply of energy for our country,” said Stephen L. Johnson, EPA Administrator and keynote speaker at the conference. The annual gathering brings together solid waste and energy professionals to network and learn about the latest industry projects, technologies and financial incentives. This year's two-day conference included 20 technical presentations, 55 exhibits and a project expo that featured 51 domestic and international landfills that are ripe for development. The conference proceedings and profiles of the expo landfills are available at www.epa.gov/lmop.

Each year, LMOP acknowledges partners who are especially creative in developing landfill gas energy projects. The 2007 award winners, representing both small and large landfills, used a variety of innovative project structures, applied state-of-the-art technology, and found diverse applications for landfill gas. The following case studies demonstrate how landfill gas is a reliable local source of green energy that can deliver benefits directly to communities. Winners also promoted landfill gas energy projects locally and nationally, an important goal of LMOP.

Project of the Year

Greentree Landfill Gas Energy Project: Kersey, Pa.

LMOP partner Beacon Generating used creative financing and applied state-of-the-art gas cleanup technology to develop one of the largest pipeline-quality landfill gas energy projects in the country. The system can process more than 15 million standard cubic feet of raw landfill gas per day from Veolia Environmental Service's (ES) Greentree Landfill in Kersey. Since July 2007, the Greentree plant has been processing more than 9,200 standard cubic feet per minute (scfm) of the more than 10,000 scfm of landfill gas that previously was burned in a flare.

Several innovative gas cleanup technologies from LMOP partners remove nearly all of the moisture, carbon dioxide, oxygen and impurities — resulting in a clean, high-British thermal unit (Btu) fuel. To begin, the landfill owner, Veolia ES, installed patented wellhead boots that prevent oxygen intrusion during collection of landfill gas. Next, Norwalk, Conn.-based EMCOR Energy Services designed and constructed the processing facility, which employs Air Liquide-MEDAL's proprietary membrane technology to remove 98 percent of the carbon dioxide and about half of the remaining oxygen. Finally, project developers used a patented pipe fusion machine to construct seven miles of 12-inch, high-density polyethylene pipeline in just three months.

The Greentree project reflects Veolia's commitment to work closely with the local community to create jobs, contribute to the local tax base and minimize its environmental footprint. The success of the project has led to the exploration of pipeline-quality opportunities at other Veolia ES landfills.

“Our goal has always been to go above and beyond in building a safe environment and sustainable future,” says Todd Watermolen, vice president of engineering and environmental compliance with Veolia ES. “It's great to see our efforts be nationally recognized by this important program.”

Project of the Year

Iris Glen Landfill Gas Energy Project: Johnson City, Tenn.

Pipeline-quality or high-Btu landfill gas energy projects usually are limited to landfills with large amounts of gas, but not in Johnson City. There, a relatively low flow of 1,500 scfm of landfill gas is processed into a cleaner gas that has proven to be a viable alternative to an electricity or medium-Btu project. As a municipal government, Johnson City was interested in implementing a landfill gas energy project while limiting the impact on taxpayers. The city was able to achieve this by forming a public-private partnership with Newburgh, Ind.-based Energy Systems Group (ESG) that resulted in no up-front costs to the city. The end user of the landfill gas also was able to reduce its expenses by using ESG's state-of-the-art gas cleanup technology, which eliminated the need for expensive burner modifications and made the project financially feasible.