Landfill gas
complex mix of different gases created by the action of microorganisms within a landfill
Landfill gas is a mix of different gases created by the action of microorganisms within a landfill as they decompose organic waste, including for example, food waste and paper waste. Landfill gas is a type of biogas, which is approximately forty to sixty percent methane, with the remainder being mostly carbon dioxide. Landfill gas often contains nitrogen gas that is pulled in from the atmosphere during collection. Trace amounts of non-methane volatile organic compounds (VOCs), siloxanes, and hydrogen sulfide comprise the remainder (<1%). These trace gases include a large array of species, mainly simple hydrocarbons.
Landfill gases have an influence on climate change. The major components are CO2 and methane, both of which are greenhouse gases. Methane in the atmosphere is a far more potent greenhouse gas with a global warming potential of 27 over a one-hundred year period. Landfills are the third-largest source of methane in the US.
Because of the significant negative effects of these gases, regulatory regimes have been set up to monitor landfill gas, reduce the amount of biodegradable content in municipal waste, and to create landfill gas utilization strategies, which include gas flaring or capture for electricity generation.
Production
Landfill gases are the result of three processes:
evaporation of volatile organic compounds (e.g., solvents)
chemical reactions between waste components
anaerobic digestion, especially methanogenesis.
“Landfill gas” enters the record as complex mix of different gases created by the action of microorganisms within a landfill. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Landfill, complex and different can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Oct 21, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q1191614. The Library of Congress control number is sh89004018. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.
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This entry incorporates text from “Landfill gas” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.