BLACK HAWK COUNTY, Iowa — Pollution is an everyday problem that harms the environment and human health. The Black Hawk County Landfill in Waterloo, Iowa, is “cleaning the air” with a new system that turns waste into clean, renewable fuel.
When waste rots in a landfill, it produces harmful gases such as methane and carbon dioxide, which are released into the atmosphere.
This new system will pump the gas into a series of wells and purify it at a processing plant so that it can be used as a renewable fuel for vehicles. This cleaner fuel will replace dirtier fuel sources such as diesel, coal and gasoline.
“So this is primarily aimed at the transportation industry. We’re looking at whether we can convert diesel trucks to another fuel source so that we not only reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that we produce at the landfill, but we also offset the virgin diesel fuel that’s used in other vehicles,” said John Foster, director of the Black Hawk County Waste Management Commission.
The Black Hawk County Solid Waste Management Commission partnered with Pine Creek RNG (renewable natural gas), which financed, designed and built the project. Pine Creek will also operate the plant.
This system exceeds current clean air regulations and is expected to save millions of dollars in future compliance costs for landfill gas reduction.
“It’s a big step, but it’s only the first,” Foster said. “Until we start making better choices as consumers about how we want to deal with our waste, we’re always going to have landfills and we’re always going to produce methane gas. So the question is how do we manage that gas in an environmentally friendly way?”
The project’s two main priorities, according to Foster, are to consider current environmental conditions and future environmental impacts.
Looking ahead, the new system is expected to reduce the landfill’s methane production by 5,000 tonnes and carbon dioxide production by 13,000 tonnes per year.
For more information about the new RNG system, visit the Pine Creek website or the Black Hawk County Solid Waste Management Commission website.
