The waste (e.g., grass clippings, food, etc.) placed in a landfill will
eventually decompose into methane, carbon dioxide and several other
inert compounds (e.g., nitrogen, oxygen, sulfur, etc.). The
landfill gas is approximately 57% methane and 41% carbon
dioxide.
Because methane is known to be a major contributor to global warming,
recycling these landfill gas will reduce the environmental
impacts. Therefore, GGE's process of converting the landfill gas
into pipeline quality natural gas not only has benefits for the
landfill owner, but it also has significant benefits to the
environment. Furthermore, the recycling landfill gas to pipeline
quality natural gas far surpasses the benefits associated with turning
land fill gas into electricity.
Specifically, for each 1 million tons of waste or
1.1 MW or 60,000 mmBtu, the greenhouse gas environmental
benefits is equivalent to one the following:
| Landfill Gas to Electricity |
Versus |
Landfill Gas to Pipeline Quality Natural
Gas |
| 9,600 cars taken off the road |
vs |
18,600 cars taken off the road |
| 13,000 acres of forests planted |
vs |
27,000 acres of forest planted |
| 210 rail cars of coal not required |
vs |
420 rail cars of coal not required |
| 100,000 barrels of oil not required |
vs |
197,000 barrel of oil not
required |
| 660 additional homes are powered a year |
vs |
5,500 additional homes are heated per
year |
The following equivalencies were used to estimate the greenhouse
gas benefits that can be achieve from using landfill gas energy.
CO2 Emissions of one
vehicle = 5 tons of CO2
Annual CO2 sequestered by one acre of forest = 3.7 tons
of CO2
CO2 released per rail car of coal (120 tons/rail car) =
223 tons of CO2
CO2 released per barrel of oil (distillate fuel) = 0.47
tons of CO2