By Cody Boteler, Waste Dive.

As of June, there are 634 operational landfill gas projects in the U.S., according to the United States Environmental Protection Agency Landfill Methane Outreach Project (LMOP). Those projects are collecting gas to use directly (in an on-site boiler, for example), to generate electricity or to be converted to pipeline-quality methane, commonly referred to as compressed natural gas (CNG).

Since establishing as a voluntary program in 1994, LMOP has worked to educate landfill operators on the benefits of capturing and utilizing landfill gas, and to bring together stakeholders for conversations and information sharing.

At this week's WASTECON event in Baltimore, LMOP team member Kirsten Cappel reviewed three landfill gas (LFG) trends that the EPA has noticed from the data it has collected and the conversations that team members have had.

Trend 1: Declining projects, changing yields

According to Cappel, the overall number of new landfill gas projects peaked in 2009 at 57 projects. In 2016, she said, there were just 10 new landfill gas projects.