Can landfills be used to produce fuel in the form of methane? Is this already being done?

Question

I vaguely remember reading about this, where methane gas can be piped out of landfills and used to create electical power. Here in Oregon, the town of Bandon on the coast uses cow poop from dariy farms to create electricity powered by methane gas.

Answer 1

Yes, the decomposition of garbage produces a natural methane gas. Not really referred to as biofuel (obtaining BTU's from burning biomatter). Pipes are layed at the bottom of the landfill and attached to a pump. The pump is set a certain flowrate as to not pull oxygen from above the ground which can lead to fire. The retrieved methane can be used in quite a few manufacturing processes or just burned to create power.

Answer 2

YES and YES

In the metro Boston area the biggest sewage treatment plant (Deer Island) collects methane and uses it to generate electric power to run the facility.

There are also other places that use old landfills driving the pipes into them to collect the methane. Originally it was just flared and burnt off but now collecting and using the methane is getting big.

Answer 3

yea, its called biofuel.. its one of the alternate source of energy available to settlements around the world, as long as u have enough poop.. it may not be provide all the power to the grids, but at least u can let the earth breathe some fresh air, pun not intended.

Answer 4

specific. organic gas is generally methane and there are already automobiles on the line that could run on organic gas. those ought to run on organic methane i might think of. yet a greater effective use for the gas coming off previous land fills is for electrical energy era. My brother as quickly as worked at an electric producing station outfitted on an previous landfill. It used gas accumulated from a community of pipes interior the better layer of the previous land fill to run a gas turbine to instruct a generator. there are various such flora interior the U.S.