MMSD to tap more landfill gas for electricity
By Don Behm of the Journal Sentinel.
The appetite for landfill gas is growing at the state's largest sewage treatment plant, where the fuel is burned — at a lower cost than natural gas — to generate electricity and dry Milorganite fertilizer.
The Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District would buy all of the gas that Waste Management of Wisconsin can extract from its Metro landfill in Franklin, under a preliminary agreement to be reviewed Monday by district commissioners.
To make good on the deal, the company would stop burning the gas in turbines at its own electrical power plant on the Metro property, one of the first landfill waste-to-energy projects in the United States, said Lynn Morgan, a spokeswoman for Waste Management. Since 1985, the company has sold the power to We Energies.