Re: DIG-L: Methane from Landfill Gas

[Vanhauw@aol.com]

Dear Amilcar:

I should tell you that I do not consider myself an expert in the matters of 
landfill gas; however, before anyone can assist you, I think it is necessary 
that you work on defining what problem(s) you are being asked to solve and 
what are the physical factors that you ar edealing with.
In other words, you should answer the following questions (there may be more):
1) Describe the landfill - is it  a municipal landfill that contains organic 
matters (I assume so, since methane is being produced) - is it an 
"engineered" landfill - in other words, is the landfill divided into cells 
(you mention these) that are lined (preventing migration of contaminants and 
biogas into the aquifer) - is the landfill equipped with a network of wells 
and pipelines that are designed to collect biogas that is flared or recovered 
(to be used in stationary combustion engines that generate electricity for 
instance).
2) Is this an active landfill (or is it closed - no more dumping allowed) - 
how old is the landfill? What is the size of the landfill? How many tons of 
waste does it now contain?
3) What are you trying to achieve: reducing the volume of gas produced does 
not seem to be possible - anaerobic digestion is taking place regardless of 
what we do. The quantiy of water allowed to seep into the landfill has some 
influence on the volumes of biogas produced. I belive there is a software 
model developped that will indicate bioas volume as a function of landfill 
"size", percenatge of organic matters, age of land fill, annual rain fall, 
etc.
Reducing the volume of biogas emitted into the atmosphere requires that the 
biogas be captured (see above) and then disposed of by flaring (or used as 
source of energy).
Preventing the biogas from being dispersed into the atnmosphere may force it 
to migrate in the ground (sometimes for considerable distances)  thus 
possibly allowing dangerous situations to occur. We have examples, in our 
city, of methane, generated by landfills, having migrated several hundred 
meters from a landfill into basements (cellars) of nearby houses and having 
caused explosions.
4) Are there local regulationd such as we have in the USA which specify 
landfill emission control?
5) Budgets: installing a gas collection sytem is of course a significant 
investment (vertical extraction wells, a header system to collect the biogas, 
a blower system, water removal equipment, instrumentation, energy-producing 
equipment or gas flare.

These are some initial aspects of a feasibilty study; hope this helps. No 
doubt other people will want to provide theri experience also.

God luck! Let me know how it turns out; I would be interested.
    Pierre
Pierre M. van Hauwaert
AplusB, Inc.
4448 Habersham South - Unit 202
Cleveland, Ohio 44143 - USA
Tel (216) 486 1915
Fax (216) 486 3992
e-mail: vanhauw@aol.com
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