Environmental Science & Engineering - www.esemag.com - June 2004
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New technology demonstrated for landfill gas utilization system in Salvador, Brazil

In June 2003, under the auspices of the Sustainable Cities Initiative of the Government of Canada, with funding from Technology for Early Action Measures (TEAM), a pilot-scale landfill gas (LFG) collection and utilization system was implemented at the Canabrava Landfill in the City of Salvador, in northeastern Brazil.

The pilot-scale system was designed and assembled in Canada and shipped to Salvador, Brazil, as a skid-mounted system. The system includes a reciprocating engine from Waukesha and a WEG generator, within the steel container. The skid-mounted approach worked extremely well in terms of facilitating transfer of necessary equipment from Canada to Brazil, and as a security measure while it continues to operate at the Canabrava Landfill.

The pilot-scale system of 75 kW/h of electricity is being used to demonstrate how LFG can be utilized for beneficial purposes. In fact, the situation is a 'win-win' in that a beneficial output is created (electricity), and biogases being combusted to create the electricity are no longer released to the atmosphere, as a contribution toward abating the global- warming impacts to climate change. The generated electricity is currently being used to light a medical waste disposal facility contained elsewhere on the Landfill, a guardhouse, and a soccer field for the local citizens. Plans also exist to expand use of the electricity to a composting facility that is being constructed for the Landfill.

This utilization system commenced operation in January 2003. The system flares biogases in excess of the electricity generation requirements, for purposes of destruction of the methane, a gas with twenty-one times the global warming impact of carbon dioxide.

The Secretariat of Urban Development and the Public Waste Management Company of Salvador (LIMPURB) were the host country’s recipients of the project.

The three Canadian firms, CRA, Golders, and Burnside, played pivotal roles in the implementation of the LFG utilization system at the Canabrava landfill site, with excellent cooperation from LIMPURB during the unit’s installation and subsequent testing phase. As a result, Canadian firms have gained enormous public attention in Brazil through various articles published in local newspapers.
By Heather Schoemaker, Deputy Director, Sustainable Cities Initiative, Industry Canada,
Ed McBean, Vice- President, Conestoga-Rovers & Associates (now Canada Research Chair, University of Guelph),
Roy Lopes, Principal, Golders Associates ltd.,
and Luis Carvalho, Vice- President, R.J. Burnside International Ltd.
Contact Ed McBean, e-mail: emcbean@craworld.com.

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