Pa. Soaring natural gas prices have increasingly begun affecting the ceramic industry over the past several months. Some ceramic manufacturers have even had to temporarily suspended operations rather than pay the high gas prices and sell their products at a less than desirable margin.
Landfill gas provides the opportunity to do just that.
Landfills can free industries from today's escalating fuel prices and their negative impact on profitability. Several related industries have worked with their suppliers to make design modifications to their burners to support this attractive fuel alternative, and an increasing number of ceramic manufacturers are starting to ask about the viability of using landfill gas in their plant. As landfill waste decomposes, it produces a regenerative build-up of gas, which must be released from underground to prevent a possible fire or explosion. LFG is naturally emitted from landfill sites and is thought to be a contributor to global warming, nuisance odors and smog. At the very least, landfills meeting the EPA's criteria are required to incinerate the collected gas through a ground flare, but this has been reported to contribute to local pollution.