Methane Recovery From Municipal Landfills in the U.S.a

Abstract

A telephone survey of 75 landfill gas facilities in the U.S.A. was carried out at the end of 1983. Twenty-nine of the sites were operated at the time of the questionaire and eight were under construction, the remainder were in various stages of planning. While most existing sites were in the West more than half of the planned sites were in other parts of the country. While more than half of existing sites upgraded the heat content of the gas two thirds of the plans for new facilities call for direct use of low heat content gas, primarily to generate electricity. Although most landfills in the same survey were owned and operated by public authorities nearly all of the gas facilities (87%) are operated by private firms.

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