The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has proposed regulations [1] to control air emissions from municipal solid waste landfills. If these regulations are adopted, they would require waste methane mitigation in order to prevent emission into the atmosphere and reduce the effect on global warming. One potential use of the waste methane is in a device which produces energy, the fuel cell. This device would reduce air emissions affecting global warming, acid rain, and other health and environmental issues. By producing useable energy, it would also reduce our dependency on foreign oil. This paper discusses the US EPA program underway at International Fuel Cells Corporation to demonstrate landfill methane control, and the fuel cell energy recovery concept. In this program, two critical issues needed to be addressed: (i) a landfill gas cleanup method that would remove contaminants from the gas sufficient for fuel cell operation, and (ii) successful operation of a commercial fuel cell power plant on that lower-heating value waste methane gas.
