Conversion of Landfill Gas to Drop-in Renewable Fuel

Currently, due to strict regulations imposed by Environmental Protection Agency, landfills are in need of robust technology that can efficiently convert environmentally harmful pollutants, found in landfill gas, into harmless products. This landfill gas also represents a zero cost feedstock that can be converted into highly desired renewable liquid fuels that are in demand both in-house (diesel for landfill trucks) and outside markets (transportation sector). The garbage-trucking sector in the United States consumes one billion gallons of diesel fuel annually with the average garbage truck using 8,600 gal/year, making up 3% of the total US diesel consumption. This equates to a $3-4 billion dollar expenditure on diesel fuel in this sector alone. Existing technology such as power generation or Liquefied Natural Gas production are inhibited by high capital costs and low economic recovery, making them economically unattractive to landfill operators. Current technologies also have stringent specifications in order to function as designed. If landfill gas is outside the required specifications, landfill gas is flared, and the energy resource is wasted. However, the proposed landfill gas to liquids process provides a higher economic return due to the high value added nature of the product and efficiencies of the process. Such a development would also impact the number of technological jobs at each landfill. In addition to its economic potential, this new technology substantially reduces the greenhouse gas emissions and carbon footprints of the municipal solid waste industry. The objective of this Phase I grant is to prove commercial feasibility of the process to efficiently and economically convert actual landfill gas to a high value commodity liquid fuel in the middle distillate range. Trash2Cash-Energy will test and optimize a landfill gas purification process and an integrated unit combining two transformative catalytic technologies using surrogate and actual landfill gases. Our preliminary economic projections and market analysis indicate that this is a potentially disruptive technology that can transform the way landfill operators contend with the waste gas disposal problems. The innovation lies in synergistically combining two transformative catalyst technologies with the capability to produce fuel from landfill gas more efficiently and cost effectively than any other existing technology thus converting an environmentally harmful waste gas into a high value renewable liquid fuel in demand. The intellectual merit of the proposed development lies in identifying and overcoming the key technological obstacles to commercialization of the proposed process such as contamination/poisoning of catalyst from landfill gas impurities and small-scale economics of Fischer- Tropsch Synthesis. Trash2Cash-Energy seek a process technology that is capable of handling wide variations in feed composition, varying levels of feed impurities, and highly selective production of middle distillate liquid hydrocarbons by developing, testing, and optimizing the LFG purification steps and integrated process technology using landfill gas. This technology provides a renewable source of energy while satisfying Environmental Protection Agency regulations for reducing landfill gas emissions at municipal solid waste facilities. As a result, waste management companies would be able to solve an environmental problem while simultaneously producing renewable liquid fuels they can use themselves. Therefore the landfill trucks can be refueled onsite from diesel fuel derived from the very trash they haul, effectively closing the logistic loop from feedstock to end point user. To comply with EPA regulations landfills are in need of robust technology that can efficiently convert environmentally harmful pollutants, found in landfill gas, into harmless products. This project will focus on proving the feasibility of commercializing a process to convert landfill gas to drop- in diesel fuel using novel catalytic technology.