Converting Trash Gas into Energy Gold

Posted 26 May 2006 @ 02:43 pm EET     Print     Reprint     E-Mail     Comments

Atlanta (Reuters) - With the growing concern for U.S. dependence on foreign oil and recognition of shrinking fossil fuel reserves, new attention is being focused on renewable sources of energy. One such source that already is being converted to electricity is landfill gas.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, every person in America produces an average of 4.5 pounds of garbage per day. Much of that trash goes into landfills, which are the largest human-related source of methane in the United States.

In 1994, the EPA formed the Landfill Methane Outreach Program (LMOP) under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. LMOP Team Leader Brian Guzzone said since methane is both a pollutant greenhouse gas and a source of energy, it offers a good opportunity to reduce greenhouse emissions and provide energy.

About 50 percent of all of the waste that we generate as a society today is put into municipal solid waste landfills, Guzzone said. The EPA encourages the capture of the resulting landfill gas and the energy produced from it.

The federal government has partnerships with more than 500 utilities, states, private businesses and communities. "The EPA's role is to work with communities that have landfills and help them realize the potential opportunity of their landfill," Guzzone said. That includes providing materials, technical services and community outreach.