Waga Energy to install system at Pennsylvania landfill

France-based Waga Energy has signed a commercial agreement with the Chester County Solid Waste Authority to produce renewable natural gas (RNG) at its Lanchester Landfill and Reclamation Center (LLARC) in Narvon, Pennsylvania.

As part of the agreement, Waga Energy will fund the construction of an RNG facility using its Wagabox technology, designed to upgrade captured landfill gas into pipeline-quality RNG.

The contract was signed in early October, and Waga Energy will operate the facility for an initial 20-year term, sharing revenue with the CCSWA. The authority owns and operates the 160-acre LLARC Landfill complex.

The Wagabox unit will process up to 2,000 standard cubic feet per minute of landfill gas to produce more than 450,000 million British thermal units (MMBtu), or 130 gigawatt hours, of RNG per year.

The low-carbon RNG produced by the LLARC Wagabox will avoid more than 27,000 tons of CO₂-equivalent per year, compared with using fossil fuels, an equivalent to avoiding emissions from 2.8 million gallons of gasoline per year, based on a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency calculation methodology.

The LLARC Landfill receives around 280,000 tons of waste per year and the resulting landfill gas is already captured to prevent direct methane emissions to the atmosphere. Once operational, the Wagabox facility “will optimize the energy recovered, providing the local community with clean, local and renewable energy, using the existing infrastructure,” the firm says.

This is the sixth landfill gas-to-RNG upgrading project undertaken by Waga Energy in the U.S. A Wagabox unit also was commissioned last May in Canada, and 17 more are in operation in Europe.

“We are very excited to be working with Waga Energy to upgrade our landfill gas to pipeline-quality RNG,” says Robert Watts, executive director of the CCSWA.

“We are honored to have been selected as Chester County Solid Waste Authority’s partner for this project, which will benefit the local community both environmentally and economically,” says Guénaël Prince, CEO of Waga Energy Inc. (USA), which is based in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania.

“By implementing the best-in-class landfill gas upgrading technology, the LLARC RNG Wagabox will reduce greenhouse gas emissions while generating additional revenue."