Prometheus tanker

First published in InFocus: UK Quoted Clean Motoring, July 2007. ©  Cleantech Investor Ltd.

AIM listed Prometheus Energy converts landfill gas into LNG. One of its main uses is in transportation. It has installed one plant in California and believes that the technology could be used at many other landfill sites. Prometheus has installed the first plant using its technology at the Frank R Bowerman landfill in southern California. It is designed to produce up to 5,000 gallons of LNG each day. The landfill site had previously been flaring the gas produced by the waste. The new plant will only use part of the gas produced at the site but there are plans to increase the size of the plant. Some modifications have been made to the plant prior to its expansion.

The LNG is used as an alternative to diesel in transit authority buses in Orange County, California. LNG is best suited to large vehicles such as refuse trucks, buses, rail yard engines and cement mixers. LNG has high energy density and is a relatively clean burning fuel. Prometheus’s LNG is even more environmentally friendly because it is produced near to the end customer . It is also much easier to transport than CNG. LNG produces lower levels of environmental pollution than petrol, diesel, bio diesel or ethanol. NOx emissions arehalved and soot is reduced by 70% compared with diesel.

The Bowerman landfill site is large but Prometheus believes that its technology would work on a site that is onetenth the size. The company has signed an agreement with Enerflex Systems, which will manufacture its purification and liquefaction systems. Revenues have been relatively modest up until now. They will start to build up in the year to December 2007.