California LNG Plant at Altamont Source: Len Butler, Waste Management

According to joint venture partners, Linde North America and Waste Management, construction on the world’s largest plant to convert landfill gas into clean vehicle fuel is nearing completion.  Project details were shared today during a presentation at the National Biomethane Summit in Sacramento, Calif. The joint venture partners are installing systems to purify and liquefy landfill methane gas.
When the plant begins operating later this year, it can produce up to 13,000 gallons per day of liquefied natural gas (LNG). According to Waste Management, this amount of LNG can fuel hundreds of waste collection trucks in California.

The Altamont project is one of several LNG and biomethane projects around the world in which Linde has participated. “Biomethane is a truly renewable and readily available green source of high quality fuel. Although it is still an emerging commodity, its economic and environmental value is rapidly being recognized,” said Bryan Luftglass, manager of Linde North America’s energy segment.

Kent Stoddard, vice president of public affairs for Waste Management’s West Group sees the Linde partnership partnership allowing Waste Management to tap into a valuable source of clean energy. He added that the use of recovered landfill gas offers many environmental benefits, among them a reduction in the greenhouse gas, methane.

Landfill gas is produced by the breakdown of organic waste under anaerobic conditions. Once purified, biomethane can be compressed or liquefied to fuel cars and heavy transport vehicles.

Today’s presentation van be seen at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjCjWVY3MOw.

The Linde Group is a world leading gases and engineering company with almost 52,000 employees working in around 100 countries worldwide. In the 2008 financial year it achieved sales of EUR 12.7 billion (USD 15.9 billion). The strategy of The Linde Group is geared towards sustainable earnings-based growth and focuses on the expansion of its international business with forward-looking products and services.

Waste Management, based in Houston, is the leading provider of comprehensive waste management services in North America. Its subsidiaries provide collection, transfer, recycling and resource recovery, and disposal services. The company is also a leading developer, operator and owner of waste-to-energy and landfill gas-to-energy facilities in the United States. Customers include residential, commercial, industrial and municipal customers throughout North America.