Economic feasibility of hydrogen enrichment for reducing NOx emissions from landfill gas power generation alternatives: A comparison of the levelized cost of electricity with present strategies

Based on recent research showing that hydrogen enrichment can lower NOx emissions from landfill gas combustion below future NOx emission control standards imposed by both federal and California state regulations, an investigation was performed to compare the levelized cost of electricity of this technology with other options. In this cost study, a lean-burn reciprocating engine with no after-treatment was the baseline case to compare six other landfill gas-to-energy projects. These cases include a lean burn engine with selective catalytic reduction after treatment, a lean-burn microturbine, and four variations on an ultra-lean-burn engine utilizing hydrogen enrichment with each case using a different method of hydrogen production. Only hydrogen enrichment with an in-stream autothermal fuel reformer was shown to be potentially cost-competitive with current strategies for reaching the NOx reduction target in IC engines.