Landfill gas project gets underway in Oswestry

A closed landfill in Oswestry is taking part in a European-funded project to boost the amount of energy generated from gas at old sites and reduce landfill emissions across the country.

Maesbury Road closed landfill site is one of five sites selected by the Environment Agency to take part in the ACUMEN project and it has installed a bio-oxidation unit to help break down the methane in the landfill gas. Each of the project sites is being equipped with different technologies to use the gas from the landfills and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The new systems will be continuously monitored and the information used to identify viable approaches to managing gas economically from old sites where the accepted view is that gas flows are too low, and prove the business case for their wider take up.

Mal Price, Shropshire Council’s Cabinet member for regulatory services, said: “Methane is one of the most potent greenhouse gasses – 21 times more powerful than CO2.

“Landfills generate methane for as long as they are breaking down waste. Speeding up the waste degradation process helps the restoration of landfills, but this can also lead to an increase in the quantity of harmful methane emitted. Part of our job is to manage this process to minimise these emissions and their impact on the environment.

“Our work at Maesbury Road to capture the gas that is being produced from the landfill and break down the methane by bio-oxidation will help us reduce greenhouse gas emissions from landfills.

“Maesbury Road is a good example of smaller, older landfills that have been closed for a very long time, where methane levels are lower and it’s more difficult to extract and utilise the gas. We are very excited to be taking part in a project that could see a major shift in the way smaller older landfills are managed in the future.”

Geoff Baxter of the ACUMEN project said: “At Maesbury Road we have installed a new bio-oxidation unit and we will be piping the gas through a specially-developed compost mixture containing bacteria which will help to break down the methane. Monitoring this closely will allow us to assess the efficiency of bio-oxidation as a way of reducing methane emissions.

“The equipment that’s been installed for the ACUMEN project work is a novel bio-oxidation unit, and it’s the first time it has been put through it has paces at landfill in the UK, and we feel confident that the lessons learnt will be applicable to other closed landfills around the UK.”