The newest project at Camino Real Landfill is generating electricity from decomposing trash.

 

Here's how it works: in 1992 Camino Real began lining each landfill "cell", to protect the groundwater below from the trash up above. (Our location is great because the groundwater here is naturally far below the bottom of each cell - an average of 300 feet below - while the strict law regulating landfills in New Mexico only requires that the ground water be 100 feet below each cell.)

The high tech liners - above and below the trash - create a closed system that captures methane gas created by bacteria in decomposing organics in the waste pile. In 1999, Camino Real began harvesting the gas through methane gas wells in each landfill cell.

Engineers at the landfill pump off the gas and burn it in a clean flare at a central collection point.

In 2006, we are ready replace the flare, and use the methane gas to power a huge electrical generator. We anticipate creating enough electricity to run 375 homes on a consistent basis.

 

Our partners in this project are:
- Four Peaks Energy of Santa Fe,
- Energy Options, Inc., of Albuquerque,
- Waste Education and Research Consortium (WERC) headquartered at New Mexico State University

 

For more information on this project, please see the article in the February 2006 edition of New Mexico Business Journal, Re-Thinking the Landfill… at: http://www.nmbiz.com/06-02Feb/32.htm