Dive Brief:

• French company Air Liquide will build a purification plant to convert methane into natural gas at a landfill in Walnut, MS. The site is owned by the Northeast Mississippi Solid Waste Management Authority and operated by Waste Connections, as reported by Mississippi Today.
• The site receives about 350,000 tons of material per year. The resulting methane will be purified into 1,300 mmBTU per day to start, with the potential for expansion. 
• Construction is expected to begin during the first quarter of 2017. Air Liquide will also be building a four-mile pipeline to feed the gas into an existing pipeline in the area.

Dive Insight:

Air Liquide has more than 50 biogas sites worldwide but this will be its first purification facility in the U.S. Using patented polymeric membrane technology, the company says it can create biomethane with 95-99% purity.

Mississippi's state environmental agency is part of the Environmental Protection Agency's Landfill Methane Outreach Program and is seen as a model for other states looking to develop their own programs. The state currently has six operational landfill gas energy projects with 10 more candidates, including the Walnut site.

These types of landfill gas projects have been going on for years but the Obama administration's methane emission standards have played a role in driving investment in new ones. While some see the potential for the incoming Trump administration to try and reverse the overall methane regulations, that process would be complicated and might not have as large of an effect as some would hope. States such as California have enacted their own methane reduction laws and landfill operators are already finding it profitable to convert the gas into energy.