Methane Gas as a Fuel

It is in Germany that import garbage waste and convert that waste into fuel. I am curious how much fuel they use to transport that waste into Germany?

utilizing the heat from spontaneous combustion And the Methane from a "pile digester" is pretty efficient, considering the pile becomes perfect hummus for growing.

The pile consists of a 10' high wire mesh circle on the ground with a 15' dia. , full of media ( hay,mulch etc.). !'' black poly pipe wrapped around the perimeter. Another 10' high wire mesh circle 30' in dia. around the first, full of media. Mound the media up in the middle and cover with black plastic (or membrane). Heat and Methane is produced at the inner core. Methane is piped to inner tubes which inflate , then the pressure build-up is piped to the gas burner {range/oven etc.) The 1" tube is hooked up to preheater the dhw system in the home. These piles were developed in France in the 60"s Mother Earth News stuff, and they worked rather well in that it was very inexpensive to build and maintain, and they lasted about 2-3 years, so you could have multiple piles and rotate them. ( the inner tubes have their valve stems removed and rolled up to evacuate the air, then only methane goes in. when one tube is full, then another is added and so on. ) some towns could adopt this procedure and save energy AND make top soil.

It is being done on an ever wider scale in many more countries.

Google 'biogas' and/or 'biomass power plant'.

Methane is not so much an ozone layer problem - more a greenhouse problem, as it's about 72 times more potent than CO2.

your local map;

That is more reason to combust this "fuel" with the proper air/fuel mixture, and utilize it.

Thye Do. Waste management has several plants that take the gas produced from their waste dumps and use it to power generators and feed the electric into the grid. They are currently building one in nothern Illinois.

oilcan13

They do. waste management has several thousand plants that take the gas produced from ,"THEIR WASTE" dumps and use it to power generators and feed electric into the grid. They are currently building one thousand in northern Illinois.

Methane a VOC (Volatile organic compounds) is a problem with ozone when it is let go to atmosphere, when it is burned it then becomes a greenhouse gas problem (CO2) as 34point5 pointed out.

Landfill Gas 476 BTU/ft3 Methane - CH₄ 1,011 BTU/ft3

I not sure which is relevant in this case as there is a difference in the energy produced but either way burning it would seem like a practical solution in some areas. I have worked on low BTU boilers in landfills and it delivered all of their power needs and then some.

Is it possible/viable to have any building with a large amount of people to direct there faeces from a toilet to a in house energy plant?

There are many large scale biogas/sewage treatment plants

I think you run into a numbers crunch when the concept is reduced that much, the amount of gas produced, doesn't justify the equipment to purify enough to use in most common appliances

Human feces is one of the most hazardous materials known to man and is best left to the bacteria and the experts.

CH4 = 1,100btu/ft3, isn't that allot of hot water? and what better way to "capture" methane before it gets into the atmosphere.

Could the landfill be "mined" like coal?

What you get from a landfill seems to be far from pure methane therefore the kcal content is much lower.

Most anything can be done - is it worth doing?

How in the world do you mine a landfill like coal?

"How in the world do you mine a landfill like coal?"

Use 'extreme patience'?

it is because a general lack of interest from the lokal goverment.