Australian recycling and waste management company Bingo Industries will convert “rotten egg” gas from a Western Sydney landfill into renewable electricity that can be fed into the grid.
According to ABC News, Bingo Industries will capture the gas—which smells like rotten eggs due to sulfur-containing compounds—from its landfill at Eastern Creek and use it to power a 4MW generator, creating enough electricity to power roughly 7,000 homes a year.
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Complaints from neighbours about the rotten egg smell led to Bingo Industries identifying an opportunity to use the gases to generate electricity.
As the organic material in the landfill breaks down, it produces methane, carbon dioxide and trace gases like hydrogen sulfide. The company treated the rotten egg smell by installing flares that transformed the methane into carbon dioxide and water.
Bingo Industries plans on using landfill gases to generate renewable electricity that will power some of its operations, before feeding anything left over into the electricity network.
The landfill at Bingo Industries will house 60 30m-deep gas wells that will draw in methane and other gases. Moisture and contaminants will be removed from the gases before they are fed into four 1MW engines capable of combusting 700 cubic metres of landfill gas per hour.
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Construction of the power generator plant is scheduled for completion by June, with plans already being discussed to add battery storage to extend its capacity.
Read the full report here.
