Tag Archives: Landfill Management

Swedish Stirling Engine Generator Converts Low Quality Landfill Gas to Energy in Poland

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Swedish Stirling Engine generator specialist, Cleanergy supplies its GasBox generators to two landfill sites in Poland for the production of energy from low quality methane gas emitted from two major, following a successful pilot project earlier in the year.

Source: www.waste-management-world.com

>” […] GasBox – the centrepiece of its Combined Heat & Power (CHP) system – has been specifically developed to generate electricity and heat from low-quality methane gas produced by the decomposition of organic matter at the 2000+ landfill sites across Europe, most of which are more than 10 years old.

According to Cleanergy, many such landfill sites choose to flare the methane they produce.

The European Union Landfill Directive of 1999 states that flaring is only an option if it is impossible to extract energy from the methane gas. But up until today, older landfill sites have often broken these directives because the gas combustion engines traditionally used at newer landfills where methane levels are above 40% simply cannot produce electricity from lower grade, ‘dirty’ methane.

However, at the two Polish landfill sites the methane was released straight into the atmosphere rather than being flared.  To address this, Cleanergy’s GasBox was deployed at the Regional Centre of Waste Management in Domaszkowice in Poland in August.

This 25 hectare landfill site closed in the  2000. Since the installation of the GasBox, the electricity generated has been used to power equipment and to heat and electrify buildings at the site.

Following this success, Cleanergy’s CHP system has also been deployed at the Waste Neutralisation Enterprise in Sulnówko, a 7.5 hectare landfill site.

Anders Koritz, CEO at Cleanergy commented: “We developed our GasBox to meet a specific need – a complete CHP system that can run on low-grade methane gas. Sure enough the industry response since our launch in June has been amazing.”

According to Cleanergy its GasBox addresses this specific problem and is able to produce both electricity and heat from a methane gas concentration down to 18%.

Installed inside a modular container, Cleanergy’s GasBox is an autonomous and flexible stirling engine unit. Also inside the container is a real-time power management system with remote access; a fuel pipe; plus a heat and electricity connection to a house/factory/warehouse with optional grid functionality.

With a claimed ROI of three to five years, the company said that its GasBox is now commercially deployed at several locations in Norway, Slovenia, Sweden (in collaboration with the Swedish Energy Agency) and the UK. […]”<

 

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Indiana Landfill Gas Energy Project Starts Operations

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Republic Services recently announced the start of operations at its latest landfill gas-to-energy project. The new 6 MW project at County Line Landfill involves four engines operating at one energy generation facility.

Source: biomassmagazine.com

>” […] Landfill gas is a natural byproduct of decomposing waste. This project involves extracting gas from within the landfill, processing the extracted gas, and then distributing the processed gas to a generation facility where it is converted into energy that supplies the local electric grid.

According to the U.S. EPA, landfill gas-to-energy projects also reduce reliance on non-renewable energy resources, such as coal or petroleum. The EPA estimates that three megawatts of energy produced from landfill gas is equivalent to preventing carbon emissions generated by the consumption of 16.6 million gallons of gasoline. Based on EPA calculations, the new County Line Landfill gas-to-energy project prevents carbon emissions equivalent to the consumption of more than 32 million gallons of gasoline.

Republic Services partnered with Aria Energy on the design, development and management of the new project. Republic Services and Aria Energy have partnered on four projects to date with a combined generation capacity of more than 39.6 megawatts of electrical power. Republic and Aria are currently working on two additional projects, which combined are expected to create another 15 megawatts of electrical power.

Republic Services has implemented 73 landfill gas-to-energy projects nationwide. Together, these projects harness enough electricity to power or heat approximately 400,000 households. According to the EPA, the combined environmental benefits from these projects are equal to removing more than 4 million cars from our roads or planting more than 4.5 million acres of trees each year. […]”<

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Development of small scale renewable landfill bio-gas electric generator in UK

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ACP funds for development of small scale landfill gas engine in UK Energy Business Review ACP’s biogas partner AlphaGen Renewables, which oversee the installation and operation of a 50kW microgeneration landfill gas engine, will develop the project.

Source: biofuelsandbiomass.energy-business-review.com

>”The project is expected to generate power from the landfill gas resource at the site under a 20 year agreement with Norfolk County Council.

AlphaGen Renewables chairman Richard Tipping said: “We are delighted to be partnering with ACP on this project, which is set to deliver strong returns. Renewables such as biogas are playing a growing role in the UK’s energy production.”

Albion Ventures Renewables head David Gudgin said: “Biogas is an increasingly popular area of renewable energy and we are looking forward to working with AlphaGen both on this project and others in the future.”<

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UK Proposed ban on Food Waste Landfill Disposal & Re-Purpose to Green Energy Feedstock

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Government, council and retailer-backed report says ban on landfill could save UK £17bn and heat 600,000 homes

Duane Tilden‘s insight:

>The ambition is to save the UK economy over £17bn a year through the reduction of food wasted by households, businesses and the public sector, preventing 27m tonnes of greenhouse gases a year from entering into the atmosphere.

The new study, Vision 2020: UK Roadmap to Zero Food Waste to Landfill is the culmination of more than two years’ work and has the backing and input of local authority and industry experts. It sets the framework for a food waste-free UK by 2020.

Last week official figures revealed the average UK family was wasting nearly £60 a month by throwing away almost an entire meal a day. A report from the government’s waste advisory group Wrap showed Britons were chucking out the equivalent of 24 meals a month, adding up to 4.2m tonnes of food and drink every year that could have been consumed. Almost half of this is going straight from fridges or cupboards into the bin, Wrap found. One-fifth of what households buy ends up as waste, and around 60% of that could have been eaten.

At the same time the UK’s largest retailer, Tesco, recently agreed to reduce its multi-buy items and other promotions after revealing that 35% of its bagged salad was being thrown out. It also found that 40% of apples were wasted, and just under half of bakery items.<

See on www.theguardian.com

Waste to Energy – Incinerator Operations threaten Community recycling programs

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Rise in number of plants burning waste may be disincentive to greener methods of disposal

Duane Tilden‘s insight:

>Experts said the use of incinerators had consequences for recycling as local authorities were forced to divert waste to feed the plants. “The choice to invest in thermal treatment can hold back recycling efforts,” Adam Baddeley, principal consultant at Eunomia, said. “At one level, the money invested in such plant simply isn’t available to put into building recycling plants or collection infrastructure. And once you’ve built an incinerator or gasifier, there’s a strong incentive to keep it fed with waste, even if that means keeping on collecting as ‘black bag’ rubbish, material that would be economically practicable to collect separately for recycling.”

Charmian Larke, technical adviser for Cornwall Waste Forum, which unsuccessfully opposed a large incinerator in the south-west, questioned the planning process that resulted in incinerators being approved. “Some of them [planning officers] have spent their entire careers trying to get this incinerator so they are wedded to the idea,” Larke said. “But if the council members understood how bad these contracts were, the officers would lose their jobs.”

Larke claimed that many of the incinerators were built in poorer areas. “There’s a feeling that people who are downtrodden have a harder time getting their act together to object, and hence it’s easier to place nasty things next to them.”<

See on www.theguardian.com

Plastic bottle recycling exceeds 50 per cent | Resource magazine

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New data from a national charity RECycling of Used Plastics Ltd (Recoup), has found that 70 per cent of the 610,000 tonnes of plastics packaging recycled in 2011 came from domestic kerbside collections.

Duane Tilden‘s insight:

>Future outlook

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has issued yearly targets for businesses concerning the recycling of paper, glass, wood, steel, aluminium and plastics for the period 2013-2017. Although the targets for most of these materials remain static or see only slight increases, the targets for plastic recycling increase by five per cent each year.

This means the plastic recycling target for 2017 is 57 per cent – up from 32 per cent in 2012 – a figure that the British Polythene Industries (BPI) plc has warned is ‘unachievable’.<

See on www.resource.uk.com

Norway: A recycling-happy nation in dire need of trash

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Sweden isn’t the only nation in the throes of a serious trash deficit. As it turns out, Norway is also desperately seeking rubbish to burn in its cogeneration plants. Perhaps the U.S. could lend a helping hand?

Duane Tilden‘s insight:

Excerpts…

Norway’s garbage woes aren’t an anomaly in Scandinavia and across Northern Europe where the demand for trash to fuel garbage-burning incinerator plants is high but the supply is devastatingly low due in part to residents’ pertinacious recycling habits. In fact, Northern European countries only produce 150 million tons of trash annually, while the overall capacity of incinerating plants is 700 million tons and growing.

[…] While the burning of garbage is not an environmentally flawless method of producing energy, modern day cogeneration plants are relatively high-tech affairs and the pollution generated is far less than coal. This method also renders landfills nearly irrelevant.

See on www.mnn.com

Plastic Packaging Design Threatens New EU Recycling Targets

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Released: 25/04/2013 10:12:00

The new challenge should be that recyclability becomes a requirement fully equal to the other performance criteria. This will help to divert substantial quantities of plastics away from landfill and

Duane Tilden‘s insight:

Plastic packaging recycling does not begin with collection but design. Packaging design today is focused mainly on maximizing performance. Careless design often leads to incomplete emptying of a package and what about different combinations of polymers/materials which are incompatible for an efficient recycling process?

Plastics Recyclers Europe believe that the introduction of an EU classification system will assist designers in evaluating their creations from a recyclability point of view, in the addition it will help them in choosing the best options to improve their class.

Plastics Recyclers Europe would like to invite all interested parties to join Recy Class™ and increase plastics recycling across Europe.

More info:
www.plasticsrecyclers.eu

See on www.packagingeurope.com

LONDON, April 25, 2013: Energy from Waste: Modern Plants and Increased Revenues to Boost Investments, says Frost & Sullivan

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/PRNewswire/ — Concerns on the growing volumes of municipal solid waste (MSW), the decreasing capacity of landfill sites, and the considerable rise in resource consumption will help sustain investments in the European waste to energy (WTE) plant…

Duane Tilden‘s insight:

“Waste treatment companies are gradually diverting MSW from landfill sites to use in energy generation owing to regulations on limiting landfills and incentives for lower carbon emissions,” said Frost & Sullivan Energy and Environmental Research Analyst Monika Chrusciak. “The conversion of waste to renewable energy through the application of thermal treatment technologies – increasingly viewed as an attractive solution for waste management – reduces operational costs as well.”

Read more here: http://www.heraldonline.com/2013/04/25/4804660/energy-from-waste-modern-plants.html#storylink=cpy

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Waste and Recycling Industry – Landfill Gas Collection Almost 50% of Renewable Energy Supply USA

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WASHINGTON, April 18, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — The waste and recycling industry is continuing to reduce its release of greenhouse gases — even as waste volumes increase, according to the latest greenhouse gas inventory released by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Duane Tilden‘s insight:

Despite the fact that we are landfilling 6 percent less than 20 years ago, we have greatly improved our ability to reduce methane emissions. As a result, these emissions declined by 30 percent during the same period. This has happened as a result of converting methane to energy, flaring of methane emissions and oxidation techniques.

There are 594 landfill gas-to-energy sites in the United States that generated 1,813 megawatts (MW) of energy and 312 million standard cubic feet a day (mmscfd) of gas. This is enough energy to directly power 1 million homes and heat 729,000, respectively.

Methane gas collected at landfills is used to power home, businesses and government facilities across the nation. Some of it is even used to fuel garbage trucks. Landfill-gas-to-energy projects and other forms of biomass-derived energy make up the almost half of the nation’s renewable energy supply, almost the same amount as is derived from solar, wind, geothermal and hydropower combined.

See on online.wsj.com