Landfill gas as a liquefied natural gas fuel source for refuse trucks
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The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the feasibility of using landfill gas (LFG) as a Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) source for the heavy duty refuse trucks operating on landfills in Texas. This could make the landfills self-sustaining and reduce their dependence on the fossil fuels. Acrion Technologies Inc. in association with Mack Trucks Inc. developed a technology to generate LNG from the gases at landfills using the "CO2 WASH Process." A successful application of this process was performed at the Eco Complex in Burlington County, PA. During this application two LNG refuse trucks were operated for 600 hours each using LNG produced from gases produced by the landfill. In this research a methodology was developed that simulates the gas generation process at a landfill by using standard models developed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The operations of a refuse truck fleet were replicated by using generic drive cycles developed as part of this research. The economic feasibility is evaluated by estimating the costs required for cleaning the LFG and converting the truck fleet from diesel to LNG as well as quantifying the benefits obtained due to change in fuel consumption and emission generation by the refuse trucks. This methodology was applied to a pilot landfill in Texas. The study showed that the methodology can be applied at landfills and preliminary results indicated that the energy recovery option is economically feasible.
