Black Hawk County will soon be turning methane from its landfill into fuel for vehicles. Black Hawk County Solid Waste Management Administrator John Foster says that carbon reduction has been at the forefront of his team’s mind for a long time, and the public-private partnership provided the answer.
“It’s something we’ve been looking at for the last three or four years is how are we able to collect that gas and one, destroy it from becoming methane, so that we reduces our greenhouse gas impact by 21 times. And also how can we find a valuable use for that gas to offset other fossil fuels,” he says. The landfill is the 4th-largest in Iowa and will be only the second in the state to recycle its methane into this type of fuel.
“The coolest thing about this project is in the state of Iowa there are only five landfills in Iowa who are recycling their gas beneficially, and only two of us are using it for transportation fuel,” Foster says. “And that’s pretty much the trend nationally as only about ten percent of landfills are using the program.”
Foster expects the project to be ready to go by November, and the sale of the recycled gas could yield $70,000 in revenue in its first year.
(By Grant Winterer, Iowa Public Radio)