ICCBT 2008 - F - (28) – pp303-310 ICCBT 2008 An Overview on the Feasibility of Harvesting Landfill Gas from MSW to Recover Energy C.H. Yip, Universiti Tenaga Nasional, MALAYSIA K.H. Chua, Universiti Tenaga Nasional, MALAYSIA ABSTRACT There are 168 disposal sites throughout the country, of which 7 are sanitary landfill [1]. When municipal solid waste (MSW) is buried at a landfill, an anaerobic process will take place and eventually produce landfill gas or LFG, which consists of methane (CH 4 ), carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) and other gases. CH 4 and CO 2 are greenhouse gases (GHG), main contributor to global warming. Current practice at landfill is to harvest LFG to be flared or to be utilized for energy recovery. This paper gives an overview on the status of LFG extraction and utilization in other countries and the feasibility of harvesting LFG to recover energy from MSW in Malaysia. The extraction and utilization of LFG from landfills in Malaysia is presented in term of the number of projects initiated and the experience gained from the nation first plant, which harvests LFG at Air Hitam Sanitary Landfill. Detail description is given on the operation experience of the plant, which harvest LFG to generate 2MW of electricity with 2 reciprocating gas engines. An economic assessment of LFG utilization shows it takes as short as 3-4 years to recover investment cost for some plants with government support/higher rate for sales of electricity generated to as high as 17-18 years as reported in literature. In term of feasibility of this renewable energy technology in Malaysia, it is still new and the current rate for sales of electricity generated is not attractive. However, if environmental benefits and harvesting LFG for energy recovery projects can maximise their return from investment as Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects, harvesting LFG for energy recovery looks promising. Keywords: Landfill, MSW, LFG, Leachate, CH 4 , CO 2 , GHG, Emissions, Utilization *Correspondence Author: C.H. Yip, Universiti Tenaga Nasional, Malaysia, E-mail: chyip@uniten.edu.my