Landfill Could Be Last to Tap Methane for Power

A huge landfill in Orange County, California, may be the last of its kind to entrap methane emissions for renewable energy sources. Funding for such projects have become less viable thanks, in part, to more natural gas and shale oil resources and less government incentives to lower energy costs.

Engineers and project designers from Montauk Energy in Pittsburgh believe the Frank R. Bowerman Landfill east of Irvine may be the last such large facility to create enough methane to be profitable. The 20-megawatt plant goes online in 2016 at a cost of $60 million. Methane emissions from decomposing organic waste in this landfill will power 18,500 homes as part of the Anaheim Public Utilities grid. The utility stands to earns $32 million in royalties over 20 years from the lease of the landfill space.

This type of power has been generated in California for decades, and 62 landfills in the state currently produce electricity. This new facility represents the fourth methane emissions power plant in Orange County alone. The three other plants power 33,000 homes in southern California. Eight more plants in California are in the planning or building stages.

This kind of electrical facility may be a dying concept until a cheaper method to capture methane emissions is found. Currently, only the largest landfills in the United States make profits. Landfills already must capture methane as part of an EPA-mandated regulation to prevent the greenhouse gas from escaping into the atmosphere. Facilities that don't turn the hydrocarbon into power either transport the flammable gas elsewhere or burn it off.

Companies capture the gas through a system of pipes and valves in the ground. When decomposing organic material gives off methane, holes in the pipes collect the substance. Valves prevent leaking, and the gas gets stored in tanks on-site.

New methane emissions regulations with regards to natural gas wells took effect in 2015 because the hydrocarbon is even worse than carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas. The Obama administration asked energy companies to be "proactive" with respect to capturing the gas leaking from wells in the ground. The overall goal is to reduce methane escaping into Earth's atmosphere by 40 to 45 percent by 2025.

The oil industry produces the largest amount of methane in the United States, followed by agricultural activities and then landfills. Wetlands naturally emit the gas when bacteria decompose organic matter. Although landfills don't make as much methane as other sources, landfills have a steady stream of renewable energy that won't run dry any time soon. Humans will always throw waste away until alternative, and feasible, methods of waste disposal are found.

The economics of methane emissions from power plants seems fairly straightforward. When costs of the technology come down and energy prices go up, smaller landfills may be converted to power generation in the future. Constructing such plants creates jobs, makes cleaner air and becomes a talking point for environmental policy in municipalities.

Photo courtesy of Colin Delaney at Flickr.com