Landfill, source of renewable energy

In China, Veolia has turned the Laogang landfill into a biogas recovery project. A key solution to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In 2012, the United Nations recognized the site as a “Clean Development Mechanism” (CDM).
 

Landfills generate large amounts of methane, a greenhouse gas (GHG) whose impact on global warming is 28 times more damaging than CO₂. That is why in 2008 Veolia proposed to extract and recover the gas generated by the Laogang landfill to produce electricity.
 

Turning household waste into a green energy source

In partnership with the city of Shanghai, Veolia installed the collection and pretreatment system necessary to capturing and recovering methane, and a power generation unit. 11 generators with an installed capacity of 15 MW are able to produce approximately 100,000 MWh of green energy every year, equivalent to the energy consumption of 100,000 households.

In 2014, 60 million cubic meters of biogas were recovered and processed, producing 102,189 MWh of electricity. The Laogang site reduced its methane emissions by 25,800 metric tons and avoided the emission of nearly 542,000 metric tons of CO₂ equivalent.