CIG: Two U.S. firms are squeezing Liquefied Natural Gas from landfills.

Nov. 22, 2009 - PRLog -- CIG sources have recently learned of two U.S. firms who are taking the lead in the conversion of landfill gas into liquefied natural gas, a cleaner burning alternative fuel.
The two companies, petroleum engineering firm Linde Group and refuse collection giant Waste Management have come together and created a conversion plant, designed and operated by the Linde Group close to the Waste Management owned Altamont Landfill on the outskirts of Livermore in California.

"The opening of the world's largest landfill-gas-to-liquid natural gas (LNG) plant right here in California is a milestone and a testament to our commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Now that the technology has been proven, we look forward to seeing its adoption spread so more vehicles can run on garbage," the secretary of the California Environmental Protection Agency was recently quoted as saying, CIG believes.

In what is seen to be an attractive long term alternate fuel source, Waste Management collects the methane gas that occurs naturally from the decomposition of organic refuse from its landfill site and delivers it to the Linde conversion plant where it is then purified and processed into LNG which is then used to fuel Waste Management trucks which collect the refuse and recycling. The vehicles concerned have had minor mechanical modifications to enable them to use LNG, CIG has learned. The landfill gasses would ordinarily be released into the atmosphere where they would contribute to global warming as greenhouse gasses.

The joint venture has to date only produced around 200 000 gallons since its September inception, however its capacity is 13 000 gallons a day which equates to 4 million gallons annually, enough to cover the fuel requirements for 300 Waste Management vehicles involved with garbage and recycling collection and saving around 30 000 tons of emissions annually.

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