Conference keynote: landfills will become a thing of the past

Biomass Power & Thermal
By Anna Austin January 17, 2012

Perhaps one of the biggest mistakes made by the biomass industry is not following the lead of the natural gas industry to come up with an industry title that sounds more environmentally friendly, according to Sierra Energy CEO Mike Hart.

“Natural gas sounds much better than fossil fuel-derived methane, so maybe we should call biomass natural mass,” Hart joked.

Hart was the keynote speaker at the third annual Pacific West Biomass Conference & Trade Show in San Francisco, Calif., Jan 16-18. He delivered a speech that emphasized the versatility of synthesis gas, as well as how the value of biomass—particularly municipal solid waste (MSW)—will drastically increase over the next couple decades.

Jokes aside, Hart said he believes that over the next 15-20 years, trash will become a valuable commodity as waste conversion technologies become widely implemented. “As time goes on, we’re going to be buying it and making competitive bids,” he said, adding that feedstock flexibility will become a dominant factor in the biomass energy industry, particularly those that can utilize complex wastes such as MSW.

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Grinding Out Power

Keloland Television
By Ben Dunsmoor
Published: September 4, 2011, 9:40 PM

SIOUX FALLS, SD - The landfill may be a place to take trash, but the Sioux Falls landfill is slowly becoming a place that is pumping out power.

For the past two years the landfill has sent gas from decomposing trash to power the POET ethanol plant in Chancellor. And, now a large grinder at the Sioux Falls landfill is also grinding out power.

"This is just another one of those alternative energy sources, alternative funding sources, that we're able to use at the landfill," Sioux Falls Landfill Superintendent Dave McElroy said.

The massive grinder is being used nearly every day to grind up bales of corn stover, which is the name for the corn cobs, leaves and everything else that's leftover after the harvest.

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Deal to turn methane into watts

Contra Costa Times
By Danny Bernardini
Posted: 10/13/2009 01:01:33 AM PDT

Garbage trucks from Solano and San Mateo counties dump their loads at the Potrero Hills Landfill in Suisun in September. (Rick Roach / The Reporter) The folks at Potrero Hills Landfill have signed an agreement to turn waste into watts.

After signing a 25-year contract with DTE Biomass Energy, Waste Connections Inc. on Monday announced it would eventually start converting methane gas into electricity that will power about 7,000 homes per year.

It isn't known exactly how long it will take to get the operation up and running, but the Suisun City landfill should be producing energy in two or three years, said Worthing Jackman, chief financial officer for Waste Connections.

He said the effort falls right in line with California's goal of becoming a leader in renewable energy. He said it also helps the landfill, which is responsible for getting rid of the methane gas one way or another.

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Berkeley eyes turning its garbage into gold

charleston.net (South Carolina)
By Tony Bartelme (Contact)
The Post and Courier
Tuesday, January 27, 2009

MONCKS CORNER — Berkeley County officials are drawing up an ambitious plan to turn the smelly gas and rotting garbage in the county's giant landfill off U.S. Highway 52 into power and money.

The project has many puzzle pieces, but if they fit together, officials said their plan could extend the life of the landfill for decades, reduce the dump's noxious odors, generate enough electricity to power homes in a small city and earn or save the county hundreds of thousands of dollars a year.

Colin Martin, executive director of Berkeley County Water and Sanitation, said the goal is to take five different wastes — methane, sewage sludge, waste water, food and yard waste and wood debris — and turn them into power. All of this would happen at the landfill.

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Finding a sustainable future at the dump

The Boston Globe
By Jeffrey E. Surma
January 12, 2009

THE ECONOMIC CRISIS has now hit the bottom of the barrel - the trash barrel, that is.

If we were to look at a garbage landfill from 200 feet away, most of us would see what appears to be a landscape of unidentifiable trash. If we dared to stand in the landfill, we would be able to identify familiar solid-waste products such as paper, cardboard, metal cans, plastic and glass bottles, scrap metal, and a host of other items. But what if we were able to take a really close look - down to the atomic level? We would see trillions of molecules made up of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, the building blocks of precious fuel to run our cars, heat our homes, and generate electricity. We would see trillions of molecules of inorganic chemicals that could be transformed into building and construction materials to save energy and preserve our natural resources.

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