Case Studies
Featured Case Study
Walker converts landfill gas at its Niagara Falls site into 1 megawatt of renewable power for Ontario’s electrical grid
|St. Catharines
The East Landfill Gas to Energy Facility at Walker’s Niagara Falls landfill site has produced enough green energy from landfill gas to power 1,000 homes per year since 2007.
As the province of Ontario began focusing on clean renewable energy sources, Walker and its partners worked to find solutions to increase the amount of renewable forms of energy used to generate electricity. The result of this collaboration—the East Landfill Gas to Energy Facility. Located at Walker’s East Landfill site in Niagara Falls, the facility converts landfill gas into renewable power for the provincial electrical grid.
Using landfill gas for clean energy through this facility helps to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases being released into the atmosphere. It also reduces the demand for fossil-fueled energy sources and offsets the carbon dioxide generated from releasing landfill gas into the atmosphere. The facility generates renewable energy using an internal combustion engine, providing additional capacity to the Ontario’s electrical grid, and helping to decrease the province’s dependency on fossil-fueled energy.
8,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide reduced
from traditional energy sources annually
1,000 homes powered
annually from landfill gas
30,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions prevented
from being released into the atmosphere annually
Project Benefits
- Provides renewable energy and contributes to Ontario’s green energy goals
- Reduces potential for odours at Walker’s Niagara landfill
- Provides additional distributed electrical generation capacity for the province
- Reduces up to 30,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions relative to 1990 levels by preventing landfill gas from being released into the atmosphere and an additional 8,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide as a result of displaced coal-fired generated electricity
About the Facility
The East Landfill Gas to Energy Facility takes landfill gas and directs it to one Jenbacher JGC320 internal combustion reciprocating engine.
- The engine is direct coupled to a 480-volt synchronous 1 MW generator.
- The electrical generation is stepped up to 13.8 kV for export to the local distribution system owned by Niagara Falls Hydro, now known as Niagara Peninsula Energy Inc.
- The engine consumes approximately 600 standard cubic metres per hour (350 standard cubic feet per minute) of landfill gas.
- Other than for routine maintenance, the genset (engines) will operate 24 hours per day, 365 days per year and the flare will be used as a standby landfill gas control combustion device.
- The engine/generator is packaged in a standard ISO steel container which houses the engine, generator, lubrication, cooling, controls, switchgear, and exhaust systems. The engine is equipped with an exhaust gas silencer to minimize noise emissions.
