Renewable Natural Gas from Landfill Fueling Buses in Pierce County

[eridani]

http://kplu.org/post/renewable-natural-gas-landfill-fueling-local-buses

Natural gas from organic waste is gaining momentum as a renewable energy source, and a local transit agency is already on board.

About 20 miles southeast of Seattle is King County’s last remaining landfill. Cedar Hills is 920 acres of rolling yellow grass growing on top of about five decades of people’s garbage. Little pipes speckle the hillsides, capturing methane as the trash decomposes.


“Until we started processing the gas, all of it was flared at the north flare station. Simply burned off as waste," said Ron Earnest, plant manager of Bio Energy Washington.

The plant runs the natural landfill gas through rows of compression tanks and filters to make it pure enough to put right into a nearby pipeline. They call it renewable natural gas. Until now, this renewable natural gas had literally been going up in smoke.

Some landfills burn this gas in generators to produce electricity. But Earnest says the return on the pipeline-grade natural gas they make here is five to seven times more profitable. Now, when Earnest sees what are piles of trash, he sees "dollar signs."

[BlueToTheBone]

1. If only I could rec this a 1000 times.

Thank you to the ones who turned their dump into a treasure.