Rehabilitation of Landfills to Produce Biomass Energy Crops

This project is targeted at rehabilitating closed landfill sites to produce biomass energy crops as an alternative to traditional agricultural crops. The establishment of agricultural crops on brownfield lands like these present unknown risks of contamination from legacy materials in the landfill. Growing biomass energy crops on these sites eliminates that risk and provides a significant technical, economic and system related unknowns associated with producing biomass energy crops under this type of site condition. The technical issues are being addressed through an ongoing field research program. This internship relates to the second and third phase of a project with Niagara Waste Systems Ltd. Providing a comprehensive economic analysis of alternative process, multifactor economic modeling, and developing an ideal field to fuel production process that is : 1.) technically feasible, 2.) economically feasible, and 3.) developed into a portable, scalable process that can be easily transferred to other similar sites.

Faculty Supervisor:

Dr. Raymond A. McBride

Student:

Lee Battiston

Partner:

Niagara Waste Systems Ltd.

Discipline:

Resources and environmental management

Sector:

Alternative energy

University:

University of Guelph