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I know biogas digesters exist, but I am unfamiliar with the economics of such systems. It seems like a better way to deal with the methane than flaring it off, but cheap natural gas in the US might make it uneconomical to do so. I’d be curious if anyone has any insight into that.

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People have looked at microturbines to burn landfill gas. It's not something one could just put into a natural gas pipeline as it's about 1/2 CO2. Even in microturbines it requires cleanup because of cosmetics. In a landfill, cosmetics decay to produce volatile organosilicon compounds, and when these burn they deposit silicon dioxide slag on turbine components.

Renewable natural gas / bio gas is alive and growing in the US. The economics are supported by California Low Carbon Fuel Standard credits.

Sources include captured landfill gas and bio digesters processing animal manure.

Captured bio gas is injected into adjacent natural gas transmission pipe lines and commingled with chemically identical fossil natural gas.

The CO2 has to be scrubbed out. This is not necessarily all negative, since if the CO2 is injected underground for sequestration it makes biogas carbon negative.

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