Dan Gibson Altamont landfill takes trash to gas

Posted on January 6, 2010 by Dan Gibson | Comments Off


Great article on NPR about the Altamont Landfill in California. The Altamont landfill has been used by San Francisco and Oakland residents and businesses since 1980. Since November, a facility constructed on the 240-acre landfill has been turning the methane gas produced by the landfill into liquefied natural gas (LNG) used to fuel almost 500 Waste Management Inc. garbage and recycling trucks

“We’ve built the largest landfill-to-LNG plant in the world; this plant produces 13,000 gallons a day of LNG,” said Jessica Jones, a landfill manager for Houston-based Waste Management. “It will take 30,000 tons a year of CO2 from the environment.”

The Altamont landfill has more than 100 wells with black tubes throughout the facility that vacuum up methane from the heap and that is then turned into LNG. The LNG is pumped into the garbage and recycling trucks at a company fueling station in Oakland.

The Altamont Landfill has been doing their best to make use of the landfill as a resource for some time. Since 1989 they’ve had a methane-fueled electric power plant that can power 8,000 homes a day.

I’ve noticed quite a few stories about landfill energy plants during my time at AGA. According to the article, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency counted 517 active landfill energy projects in the nation’s approximately 1,800 operational municipal landfills in 2009. That was up almost 50 percent from 2000, and 28 percent from 2004.

One of the challenges with these types of projects is the initial expense but there’s some good news here. Four state environmental agencies contributed grants to help build the $15.5 million Altamont plant. Mike Beckman of Linde Group North America, the company that built and runs the natural gas plant, said the Altamont plant should continue producing fuel for 20 years or more meaning the plant should be profitable since the gas is sold to Waste Management and other customers.

The article has a lot more great information and pictures so I’d encourage a read. If you know of any similar projects in your area, let us know in the comments.

Posted in Natural Gas | Tagged | Comments Off

Dan Gibson Natural gas seen as number-one energy source for this century at MIT seminar

Posted on January 5, 2010 by Dan Gibson | Comments Off


Found a nice article on “the future” of natural gas at the MIT Energy Initiative (MITEI) Web site. Leonardo Maugeri is a senior executive vice president of Eni S.p.A, a leading energy company and a founding member of the MITEI.

Maugeri was speaking at an MITEI-sponsored seminar when he said, “Because of its competitive price, availability, and clean-burning qualities natural gas is set to become the number-one energy source over the course of this century.”

It does look like it, doesn’t it?

Roger was writing about this month’s ago when he called natural gas a “nearly perfect fuel.” Mike just wrote a great article talking about source-based efficiency gains. Or you can read about the Potential Gas Committee’s report of unprecedented natural gas supply found in U.S. If you want to have a real conversation about our energy future, just read and comment on the articles you find here. It’s a good start and we’re glad to see others, like MIT, come along.

We think natural gas is going to be a big part of our energy future. What do you think?

Posted in energy, Natural Gas | Tagged | Comments Off

Chris McGill Natural Gas Market Indicators

Posted on December 31, 2009 by Chris McGill and Mike Pomorski | Comments Off


091231.ngmi .sm Natural Gas Market Indicators

The significant cold snap in December resulted in a 110 Bcf demand day on December 10. While 100 Bcf plus consumption days are not uncommon as
peaks, they more usually happen in January or February not early December. Heating load, industrial process and plant heating, additional power generation requirements have all contributed to the robust December consumption.

On the supply side, temporary production area well freeze-offs that are not uncommon in the intermountain west during cold periods extended to other areas and probably contributed to the strong withdrawals from storage in mid-December.

The argument can be made that while a decided shift to more onshore production creates protection from hurricane induced supply disruptions, it also adds sensitivity to extremely cold conditions and that flowing production could be impacted more now than when productive capability was more centered in the gulf region.

Visit this link to download the full Natural Gas Market Indicator. Topics covered include: Reported Prices, Weather, Working Gas in Underground Storage, Natural Gas Production, Rig Counts, Pipeline Imports and Exports, and LNG Markets.

Posted in Natural Gas | Tagged | Comments Off

Mike Pomorski There are $20 bills outside your house!

Posted on December 23, 2009 by Mike Pomorski | Comments Off


President Obama, who has been promoting the weatherization of homes and businesses as both an energy-saving and money-saving practice, was recently quoted saying, “If you saw $20 bills just sort of floating through the window up into the atmosphere, you’d try to figure out how you were going to keep them.”  It is hard to disagree.

But what if you were driving or walking near electricity infrastructure and you noticed that $20 bills were oozing out of the wires and floating onto the road?  I imagine that you’d try to stop and pick those up too.

If site-based efficiency gains (caulking your home or installing higher efficiency appliances) are like collecting $20 bills for yourself, then source-based efficiency gains are like society finding $20 bills laying all over the place.

After accounting for extraction, generation, transmission, and distribution (or, after adopting a source-based efficiency measure), three times more energy reaches the customer with the direct use of natural gas as compared to electricity.  Put another way, if you start with 100 units of source energy, 32 of them will reach the customer if they are converted to electricity first, but 92 of them will reach the customer if they are used directly in natural gas furnaces, water heaters, etc. (for more information see AGA’s new direct-use slides here).   It is a story you have likely heard before, but it bears repeating.

This is not to say that people should allow $20 bills to float through their windows.  But we should all be thinking more about the $20 bills lying on the road.

Posted in Natural Gas | Tagged | Comments Off