BEND, Ore. (AP) — The manager of a Deschutes County landfill hopes a California company can help harness the methane gas produced by decaying organic materials.
The hope for Knott Landfill is to inject steam into the landfill, speeding up the decomposition process. Then, a company called Waste to Energy Group would collect the methane gas and use it to generate electricity.
Officials say extraction and power generation facilities could be built at the landfill within the year, the Bend Bulletin reports (http://bit.ly/yXEt0m ).
Converting the methane gas to electricity could generate more than $250,000 for the city.
It will also curb the number of subterranean fires, which have periodically broken out at the landfill. The county’s solution is to burn off the excess methane to prevent it from seeping beyond the landfill’s boundaries.
