Renewable Energy Alternative Fuels

Puente Hills Landfill Puente Hills Clean Fuels Facility Landfill gas to vehicle fuel Low emissions Fuels Sanitation Districts’ owned vehicles

13130 Crossroads Parkway South City of Industry, CA  91746 Background A special pipeline was added to the existing gas collection system to draw a richer core gas from several deep vertical wells in the landfill. The pipeline draws 250 cfm of gas containing approximately 55% methane. At the Clean Fuels Facility, the landfill gas is processed, compressed, and stored for use by the landfill's water trucks, and site and vehicles. The high-octane fuel is the equivalent of 1,000 gallons of diesel fuel per day. Landfill The Puente Hills Landfill services homes and businesses in over 60 cities as well as unincorporated areas within Los Angeles County, managing approximately one third of the countywide waste requiring disposal. Fuel Replacement Membrane separation technology was selected to purify the gas because it requires minimal maintenance and is ideally suited to small quantities of gas. The equipment is designed for automatic, unattended outdoor operation. The gas is dewatered, purified and pressurized to produce 100 cfm of high quality CNG containing an average of 97.5% methane. The gas purification equipment (left) consists of the compression, membrane and gas storage skids. Benefits The Clean Fuels Program improves air quality through the processing of gas not used at the power plant into CNG fuel to achieve a substantial emissions reduction in vehicles. The clean CNG fuel reduces air emissions in two ways. First, it lowers the emissions from vehicles that burn CNG instead of conventional fuel. Second, it avoids the flaring of excess landfill gas.This fuel is now used as a gasoline or diesel fuel substitute to reduce emissions in Districts' vehicles (vans, pickups, and cars), off road heavy-duty equipment and, in the future, refuse trucks. The high-octane fuel, the equivalent of 1,000 gallons of diesel fuel per day, not only surpasses the quality of commercially available natural gas but also is less expensive to produce than conventional fuels.