Landfill Fumes to Power Sonoma (CA) Buses

[jpak]

http://kcbs.com/pages/236698.php?contentType=4&contentId=328460

SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS) -- Gas from Sonoma County garbage will soon be powering buses, if a plan to turn landfill gas into vehicle fuel works. The idea is the latest in the effort to help reduce the effects of global warming by cutting down on greenhouse emissions.

About half of the gas coming off Sonoma County’s landfill is natural gas or methane, according to Ken Wells, the county’s waste manager. Instead of letting the air seep out into the atmosphere, he wants to turn it into energy instead. The county is building a facility to do just that.

"Not only will we have clean burning motors in our buses, but we'll also have renewable fueled buses so they don't contribute at all to greenhouse gasses and climate change,” Wells told KCBS’ Bryan Goebel.

The program is part of a federally funded pilot project that will initially power two buses. One challenge, according to Wells, is making sure the gas is consistent and clean enough not to damage the bus engines. If the fuel is determined a success, the entire fleet of 45 buses could eventually be converted to green machines.

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[eppur_se_muova]

1. Methane is a more effective GHG than CO2, so burning landfill methane ...

is actually BETTER than burning other biofuels (yes, I mean "other", landfill is very "bio").

[kestrel91316]

2. We need to do this in Los Angeles. All our buses are already

powered by CNG, so all they have to do is figure out how to utilize what's coming out of our landfills.