Waste Management to Build Landfill to Natural Gas Unit

Waste Management Inc. will build a landfill to natural gas plant in Fairmont City, Ill.

The Houston-based Waste Management said in a news release that the operation, called the Renewable Natural Gas Facility, will create pipeline-ready natural gas from its Milam Landfill in Fairmont City. The company expects the operation to begin delivering gas in late summer 2014.

The estimated cost of the facility is $18.5 million, which will be partially funded by a grant of about $2.4 million from the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, and the Illinois Energy Office.

The processed renewable natural gas will go into the pipelines of Ameren Illinois for withdrawal at other locations, including some Waste Management facilities. It will be used to fuel truck fleets and other equipment that run on compressed natural gas (CNG).

The Milam facility will be Waste Management’s third operation to convert landfill gas to natural gas. The others are in California and Ohio.

Since the gas will be treated, rather than burned onsite at the Fairmont City operation, Waste Management anticipates about a 60-percent reduction in the emissions of carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides and particulate matter.

The facility is designed to process about 3,500 standard cubic feet per minute of incoming landfill gas. This equals the amount of gas as it takes to fuel about 400 of Waste Management’s CNG collection trucks each day.

Waste Management of Illinois currently has more than 100 CNG trucks in its fleet displacing about one million gallons per year of diesel fuel.

The site has had an existing landfill gas power plant for more than 20 years with a capacity of 2.4 megawatts.