Project Study:
Revenue Recovery for the Landfill Operator

This project summary has been prepared as a proposed landfill project. The landfill potential has been assumed to produce 1.0 mmscfd or one million standard cubic feet per day of raw gas. This raw gas composition is approximately 49% methane. The composition consists otherwise of about 41% carbon dioxide, 9.6% nitrogen with some other gases and other materials being included. This represents a normal landfill gas that is presently being flared today.

The purpose of the project is to look at the potential for recovery of the gas for utilization by an industrial end-user. By utilizing an industrial end user application, we can bypass the stringent requirements that would be present in the event the gas were to be placed in a pipeline for general transportation and sale.

If the gas were to be placed in a pipeline, other requirements would be imposed. These requirements include: the removal of any siloxanes, removal of oxygen in the gas from the result of the landfill cover, and the removal of nitrogen in the gas. Additionally the carbon dioxide must be reduced to below pipeline specification requirements. Under all conditions, the gas must be dried after treating.

In the application, we propose, gas now at flare with approximately a few inches of water pressure would be increased to up to 10 psig by use of a blower. We would then increase the pressure through compression to 500 psig for treatment. (See Process Flow Diagram below).

Our Gas Processing Unit would be utilized to remove most of the carbon dioxide reducing the carbon dioxide level to below 2% to meet transportation and general gas conditioning requirements.

After removal of the carbon dioxide a glycol dehydrator would be utilized to remove the majority of the moisture bringing the moisture levels down to about 5.0 pounds per 1.0 mmscf. Compression would then be applied to raise the pressure from 500 pounds after treatment to 2400 pounds or more dependent on available state and federal DOT requirements for gas trucking. The gas would then be trucked to an available industrial end-user and then reduced in pressure through utilization of an unloading skid to meet the industrial end-user's application needs.

In many cases the industrial end-user will be receiving his gas from the pipeline at somewhere between 12 - 50 pounds. We can then unload our trailer with only a minimal amount of gas remaining in the trailer on the return trip. This avoids the cost of additional compression requirement at the unloading point.

The gas quality available after the treatment will be approximately 850 BTU's per cubic foot as compared to 1,000 BTU's per cubic foot for pipeline quality gas. It is assumed that the gas would be sold on a BTU basis probably at about 10% less than the NYMEX price giving a discount for the lesser quality and a bargain to the end-user.

In this application we have not attempted to add to the proposal the savings that might occur from utilizing CNG tractors at the site but simply propose to hire an outside contractor with a tractor to move the gas.

Our company would assist with capital and equipment required for the project and would operate the gas processing equipment and transportation facility.

When you examine the capital costs, a basic project including gas transport trailers, the processing equipment, and the compression is approximately $2,000,000.00. This cost can be amortized over five years allowing a profitable economic venture.

A landfill project can easily exceed 20-30 years in life. This landfill proposal represents probably the smallest project that you might wish to do. In the event your landifll gas volumes can be increased to three million cubic feet per day of processed gas for a commercial transportation project, then of course your net revenue increases accordingly.

When the raw gas volumes exceed five million cubic feet per day or more, it may then be feasible to consider a full pipeline project (see Pipeline Project PFD below). Those projects have a capital cost of between six and ten million dollars and involve stringent requirements to maintain the gas online.

We are recommending the commercial gas transportation approach as the most economical and viable method of marketing most landfill gases. This would be a profitable venture, allowing an opportunity for profit where at the present time, flaring and total loss of revenue is occuring.

Gas Processing Unit Piping and Instrumentation Drawing

Use Acrobat Reader to view or print Landfill Gas Processing PID

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