Northwest Natural Renewables proposes Ohio landfill project

The Northwest Natural Renewables (NWNR) business unit of Portland, Oregon-based Northwest Natural Holding Co. reportedly is close to receiving a contract to install a landfill gas-to-energy system in Toledo, Ohio.

The proposed 20-year contract would convert methane gas generated at the Hoffman Road Sanitary Landfill in Toledo into renewable natural gas (RNG), according to a report from WTOL-TV in Toledo.

The report says Toledo City Council is reviewing the contract and could vote to approve it as soon as Aug. 12.

Toledo Public Service Director Megan Robson tells WTOL that during the course of the 20-year contract, the city might garner $30 million in marketable RNG revenue.

“We don’t have to put in any capital investment; they’re going to do it all, so for the city we have low risk and high reward,” Robson tells WTOL.

A city council member tells WTOL the same contract would include installing a pipeline at Toledo’s municipal water intake plant designed to collect landfill gas sent there to fuel a combined heat and power (CHP) system.

The sizable Hoffman Road MSW landfill has more than 19 million cubic yards of capacity and could remain open until 2094, according to a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency database.

In 2023, the landfill emitted more than 15,500 metric tons of methane, according to the federal agency. It already captures a large amount of that methane, which is piped to the water treatment facility where it enters the on-site CHP system.

NWNR already has two installations in Ohio, at landfills in Oberlin and Lowellville, saying those two projects are “are delivering low-carbon fuel by converting landfill gas to pipeline quality RNG.”