Wieringermeer is a partially closed landfill site. At the closed area vertical landfill gas wells have been sunk. The recovered gas is delivered to the waste management company HVC, which uses it to heat its fermentation plant and office buildings. Waste with very low organic content is disposed of in the section of the landfill site that is still in operation. Here, we have sunk wells that ‘grow’ with the landfill. As organic content in this waste is low, it does not produce much methane and accordingly, the recovered gas does not contain a lot of methane either. In order to burn this gas, we use a low-calorific flare which allows combustion with methane concentrations as low as 20% at high temperatures (>900°C).
In addition to the landfill gas recovery, Wieringermeer is also an important site for researching methane oxidation in the top layer, and studying sustainable landfill management.