List of Publications, Tools and Resources
LMOP offers an array of publications, tools and resources related to the development of landfill gas (LFG) energy projects. This page also links to various items of interest developed by other EPA programs or external organizations. If you have questions about an LMOP item or to report a broken link, please Contact Us.
LMOP Publications Related to LFG Energy
Landfill Methane Outreach Program and Landfill Gas Energy: The Power of Partnership (June 2010) – Offers basic information about LMOP, including program goals and products and services, as well as four brief case studies about successful LFG energy projects involving LMOP Partners.
LFG Energy Project Development Handbook (September 2016) – Provides an overview of LFG energy project development 
and presents technological, economic and regulatory considerations that can affect project feasibility and success. Landfill owners, energy service providers, end users, state and local agencies, community members and other interested stakeholders will benefit from this information as they work together to develop successful projects.
LMOP Quick Reference Sheet: Regulations and Proposals Affecting Landfills and LFG Energy Projects (September 2016) – Lists several EPA rules that affect landfills or LFG energy projects. Includes brief summaries of the rules along with Web addresses for readers interested in obtaining more detailed information.
Green Power from Landfill Gas (July 2016) – Describes the energy, environmental and economic 
benefits of using LFG as a renewable energy resource in the form of electricity or fuel. Also summarizes the current status of LFG energy projects in the United States and highlights examples of actual annual cost savings experienced by organizations using LFG.
Adapting Boilers to Utilize Landfill Gas: An Environmentally and Economically Beneficial Opportunity (December 2009) – Discusses the retrofits needed to enable a boiler 
to operate efficiently using LFG, notes other factors that should be considered related to LFG use in boilers, and provides examples of successful LFG-fired boiler projects. Using LFG in place of conventional fuels in a boiler is a common practice that requires minor technical adjustments to the boiler. Virtually any commercial or industrial boiler can be retrofitted to fire LFG and the equipment for retrofitting a boiler to burn LFG is commercially available and proven.
Landfill Best Management Practices (BMPs) and Technologies
Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards, Sector Policies and Programs Division
- Available and Emerging Technologies for Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Municipal Solid Waste Landfills (GHG Control Measures White Paper - Landfills) (June 2011) – Summarizes information on available control techniques and measures to mitigate landfill GHG emissions.
California Integrated Waste Management Board (CIWMB)
- Technologies and Management Options for Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Landfills (PDF) (115 pp, 2.9MB) Exit (April 2008) – Provides landfill operators and regulators some recommended technologies and BMPs to reduce LFG emissions through improved landfill design, construction, operation, and closure.
British Columbia Ministry of Environment
- Technologies and Best Management Practices for Reducing GHG Emissions from Landfills Guidelines (PDF) (68 pp, 893K) Exit (June 2011) – Provides a description, potential GHG reductions, cost considerations, feasibility, and other benefits for several BMPs, and includes a BMP Decision Tool with recommendations and criteria for determining a set of BMPs most suitable and feasible at a particular site.
- Landfill Gas Management Facilities Design Guidelines (PDF) (230 pp, 9.3MB) Exit (March 2010) – Provides guidance for the design of LFG management facilities and BMPs at MSW landfills based on a review of LFG management regulations worldwide, and includes a simple diagnosis tool of common collection system and fuel recovery issues and solutions.
Organic Waste Diversion
Environment and Climate Change Canada
- Technical Document on Municipal Solid Waste Organics Processing Exit (2013) – Describes technical aspects and key considerations involved in processing organic wastes, covering a wide range of topics from the science and principles of composting and anaerobic digestion to proven processing technologies, biogas utilization, and facility design. Drawing on lessons learned and expert knowledge in the field of organics management across North America, this document presents valuable information for professionals including government officials, facility operators, waste management specialists and stakeholders.
Other EPA Publications
Office of Land and Emergency Management, Office of Resource Conservation and Recovery
- Advancing Sustainable Materials Management: Facts and Figures Report (Annual) – Includes information on MSW generation, recycling, and disposal in two formats: a full report and a shorter fact sheet. EPA has collected and reported data on the generation and disposal of waste in the United States for more than 30 years, and uses this information to measure the success of waste reduction and recycling programs across the country.
Combined Heat and Power (CHP) Partnership
- Biomass CHP Catalog of Technologies (September 2007) – Reviews the technical and economic characterization of biomass resources, biomass preparation, energy conversion technologies, power production systems, and complete integrated CHP systems.
- Catalog of CHP Technologies (March 2015) – Provides an overview of how CHP systems work and the key concepts of efficiency and power-to-heat ratios. It also provides information and performance characteristics of five technologies.
LMOP LFG Energy Tools
LFGcost-Web (November 2016) – Evaluates the initial economic feasibility and environmental benefits of a landfill gas (LFG) energy project through a user-friendly Microsoft® Excel platform. Analyses performed using LFGcost-Web are considered preliminary and should be used for guidance only.
LFG Energy Benefits Calculator (July 2016) – Estimates the direct methane, avoided carbon dioxide and total greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions attributable to an LFG energy project for the current year, calculated from the project size entered by the user. Based on the estimated emission reductions, the tool provides environmental equivalency values to put the reductions in more relatable terms, such as acres of forests or gallons of gasoline. Based on the project size, it also estimates an energy benefit value in terms of homes powered or homes heated.
Interactive Conversion Tool (XLS)(1 pg, 229 K)
(April 2016) – Conducts unit conversions, such as standard cubic feet per minute to million standard cubic feet per day or short tons of methane to million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents. Also estimates LFG energy potential from an MSW landfill, for example, megawatt capacity from tons of waste-in-place.
LMOP Locator (September 2011) – Searches geographically for facilities that can potentially use LFG or for landfills located near a facility that is interested in using LFG, based on basic location information provided by the user.
International LFG Models Exit – Several country-specific LFG generation models were created to help landfill owners and operators and other interested parties evaluate the feasibility and potential benefits of collecting and using LFG for energy recovery in international locales.
Other EPA LFG Tools
Landfill Gas Emissions Model (LandGEM), version 3.02 (May 2005) – This model was developed by the EPA Office of Research and Development-National Risk Management Research Laboratory, and the Clean Air Technology Center. It estimates total LFG and methane generation, as well as emissions of carbon dioxide, non-methane organic compounds, and individual air pollutants from MSW landfills. Model results can be used to estimate the recoverable methane available for a potential LFG energy project. LandGEM can also be used to determine if a landfill is subject to the control requirements of the federal New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) for MSW landfills, the emission guidelines for MSW landfills, or the National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP) for MSW landfills. In addition to the LandGEM version 3.02 Excel file, users should also download the "ReadMe First" file and User’s Guide, which contain key information necessary to properly operate the model.
EPA Integrated Solid Waste Management Tools
Waste Reduction Model (WARM) (March 2016) – EPA's Office of Resource Conservation and Recovery created WARM to help solid waste planners and organizations track and voluntarily report GHG emission reductions from several different waste management practices. WARM calculates and totals GHG emissions of baseline and alternative waste management practices – source reduction, recycling, anaerobic digestion, combustion, composting and landfilling.
Municipal Solid Waste Decision Support Tool (MSW DST) Exit (Annual) – EPA's Office of Research and Development-National Risk Management Research Laboratory and the U.S. Department of Energy developed this comprehensive tool to aid solid waste planners in evaluating the cost and environmental aspects of integrated MSW management strategies. The tool enables users to simulate existing MSW management practices and conduct scenario analyses of new strategies based on cost and environmental objectives. MSW DST includes multiple design options for waste collection, transfer, materials recovery, composting, waste-to-energy, and landfilling.
Managing and Transforming Waste Streams: A Tool for Communities (September 2016) – EPA Region 9 developed this planning tool that features a table of 100 measures communities can employ to reduce waste and recover materials. The tool can help local and tribal governments learn how to shift their community’s solid waste stream away from disposal and toward waste reduction, materials reuse and recovery. Planners can learn about measures such as ordinances, incentives and outreach and discover more than 250 real implementation examples from several U.S. communities. The tool is available in both web and spreadsheet format.
LFG Energy Resources
Resources for Funding LFG Energy Projects – Provides information on key funding resources available to LFG energy projects.
Partner Award Winners – Provides information about successful energy projects that have won an LMOP award for excellence and creativity. Several write-ups link to profiles that contain additional detail about the projects.
State Agencies – Assists those searching for state-specific information related to permits and regulations that may affect LFG energy projects, via a table of key state organizations’ Web addresses. The list represents the main state agencies and departments involved in topics such as air quality permitting, energy policy, and public utility regulation.
Other EPA Programs
State and Local Climate and Energy Program – Provides technical assistance, analytical tools and outreach support to state, local and tribal governments. The state program helps develop policies and programs that can reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and lower energy costs. The local program helps governments meet sustainability goals with cost-effective climate change mitigation and clean energy strategies.
Green Power Partnership – Encourages organizations to use green power as a way to reduce the environmental impacts associated with conventional electricity use, assists organizations with procuring electricity generated from renewable resources, and promotes the organizations’ green power leadership.
Combined Heat and Power Partnership – Works with combined heat and power (CHP) stakeholders to reduce air pollution and water usage associated with electric power generation by increasing the use of CHP. Provides tools, policy information and other resources to energy users; the CHP industry; clean air officials; and other clean energy stakeholders. The program’s goal is to remove policy barriers and facilitate the development of new CHP projects by promoting the economic, environmental and reliability benefits of CHP.
Global Methane Initiative Exit – International public-private initiative that advances cost-effective, near-term methane abatement, recovery and use of methane as a clean energy resource in five sectors: agriculture, coal mines, municipal solid waste, oil and gas systems, and wastewater. The Initiative reduces the informational, institutional and other market barriers to project development through the development of tools and resources, training and capacity building, technology demonstration and direct project support.
LFG Collection and Control Systems
Climate Action Reserve (CAR) U.S. Landfill Project Protocol Exit – Provides guidance to quantify, report, and verify GHG emission reductions associated with installing an LFG collection and destruction system at a landfill. The protocol provides eligibility rules, methods to calculate reductions, performance-monitoring instructions, and procedures for reporting information to CAR.
Municipal Solid Waste Management
Office of Land and Emergency Management, Sustainable Materials Management – Sustainable materials management (SMM) is a systemic approach to using and reusing materials more productively over their entire lifecycles. SMM represents a change in how society thinks about the use of natural resources and environmental protection. Looking at a product's entire lifecycle can reveal new opportunities to reduce environmental impacts, conserve resources and reduce costs.
Organic Waste Diversion
Office of Land and Emergency Management, Sustainable Management of Food – Sustainable Management of Food (SMF) is a systematic approach that seeks to reduce wasted food and its associated environmental impacts over the entire lifecycle. Reducing waste food can save resources and money, help people, reduce landfill methane, and return nutrients to the soil.
Climate Action Reserve U.S. Organic Waste Digestion Project Protocol Exit – Provides an accurate GHG accounting methodology for GHG reduction projects that divert and anaerobically digest eligible organic waste and/or wastewater streams that otherwise would have gone to uncontrolled anaerobic storage, treatment and disposal systems such as solid waste landfills or onsite anaerobic wastewater treatment facilities. The protocol also addresses the co-digestion of eligible organic waste streams with livestock manure.