Jul 6, 2009 7:13 pm US/Pacific
Livermore Landfill Gas To Fuel Garbage Trucks
LIVERMORE (CBS 5) ―
-
-
Waste Management garbage truck.
CBS
Every day at the massive Altamont Landfill near Livermore, sanitation trucks dump tons upon tons of trash. And there's a nasty byproduct you may not know about. It's called landfill gas, a combination of methane and carbon dioxide, which are both greenhouse gases.
All around the landfill, a network of giant pipes captures the greenhouse gases and most of it is burned off. But Waste Management, which owns the facility, is planning to turn the methane into liquefied natural gas or LNG. The liquid gas will then be used to fuel the company's thousands of garbage trucks.
The entire project will cost Waste Management and its German partner Lindey about $18 million. It's scheduled to go into operation in several weeks. The company expects to save half a million annually by replacing diesel in their trucks with clean burning LNG.
The LNG plant first takes the methane gas and strips it from other chemicals and turns it into the same type of fuel used in gas-powered barbecues. If successful, this technology could be used at many of the 1,000 other landfills that dot California and the entire U.S., cleaning the air of millions of tons of greenhouse gases each day.
(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
Environment & The Green Beat
Click to enlarge
Stumble It!
Reporting
Comments