Appendix H
LFG: Commercial Energy Recovery Case Studies

Industry sources indicate that successful LFG energy recovery projects typically have the following characteristics [268]:

1. Experienced, professional management
2. Adequate financing which allows as much labor, inventory, and supplies as needed
3. An abundant LFG supply
4. A favorable local marketplace
5. Situation in landfills that remain active for 5 to 10 years or more
6. Contracts for gas rights, power or gas sales, and facility use that are solid and of adequate duration
7. Experienced, continuously available personnel for servicing LFG extraction system and energy conversion system.

The following are cases of LFG-to-energy conversion projects where landfill operators/owners and Government have worked together successfully.

• Riverview, Michigan facility, operated by Detroit Edison. Detroit Edison Company has been involved in the development of landfill gas-to-energy projects since 1986. The Riverview facility has an output of 6.6 megawatts. Since it began commercial operation in 1988, it has generated more than 225,000 megawatthours of electricity. The project has operated safely and reliably. Riverview municipal officials have recognized the facility’s valuable service and its numerous environmental benefits, including capture of some 4 billion cubic feet of methane that would have been released into the environment. The Riverview facility expects to collect LFG and produce electricity through the year 2027. Detroit Edison has gone on to pursue similar ventures in California, Florida, Texas, Ohio, and Michigan.
• Short Mountain Landfill project, Eugene, Oregon, operated by Emerald People’s Utility District (EPUD). EPUD worked with Lane County, the State of Oregon, and a private investment company to develop a 3.4-megawatt plant at the Short Mountain Landfill. The plant operates at over 97 percent capacity and provides a profit to EPUD as well as royalty income to the County. Bonneville Power Administration (BPA), in turn, credits EPUD’s bill for the power generated by the landfill project.
• I-95 Sanitary Landfill, Fairfax County, Virginia. Under a unique arrangement, a developer owns and operates the energy recovery facility, but Fairfax County retains control of the gas extraction wells. The agreement was structured this way because of the County’s concerns about migration and odor control. The County operates the well field for the developer, for a fee, and the developer has rights to a set amount of gas. The I-95 energy recovery facility collects 3.3 million cubic feet per day of LFG and uses 8 internal combustion engines to generate 6 megawatts of electricity for sale to Virginia Power. By adopting a team approach with the developer, the County gained a state-of-the-art energy recovery plant at no cost and maintained control over their landfill gas system.
• Mountaingate Facility, Los Angeles, California. The Mountaingate Landfill was shut down in 1980. Four of the eight canyons filled during that time now support a championship golf course. The Mountaingate control and recovery plant collects 5 million cubic feet of LFG per day. Air Products and Chemical, Inc., operators of the Mountaingate Landfill collection facility, processes the gas on site to remove siloxanes and other impurities using a proprietary process. The purified gas is then piped to the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), about 4.5 miles away. UCLA in turn compresses the gas to approximately 500 pounds and blends it with natural gas. The blend is used to fuel two 14.5-megawatt combustion turbine generators that provide power for the UCLA campus. No detrimental effects on UCLA’s emissions control equipment has been noted in the nearly 2 two years of use.
• AT&T Plant, Columbus, Ohio. This plant converted its boilers from natural gas to LFG in 1993. The LFG is transported from a nearby landfill. AT&T estimates that it saved $120,000 by mid-1995 over the cost of natural gas [269].

Contact:

Mark Gielecki

mgieleck@eia.doe.gov

Phone: (202) 426-1141

Fax: (202) 426-1280