By Brad Douville, CEO, Greenlane Renewables
Landfill gas (LFG) is the backbone of renewable natural gas (RNG) production, accounting for roughly 70% of all RNG generated in the US, Canada and Brazil. Yet, today’s technology used to upgrade landfill gas is lagging behind, forcing project developers into a costly trade-off: accept low methane recovery (robbing project revenue) at a reasonable price, or pay a premium for higher performance. This article explores why this gap persists, what’s at stake for engineers and project owners, and how the industry can move forward.
RNG is an essential tool in meeting the needs of growing demands for resilient, dispatchable and clean energy infrastructure that respects the realities of climate change in which we find ourselves. RNG is to the gas grid as wind and solar are to the electricity grid: a scalable, renewable solution for decarbonization, but without the intermittency. The gas grid is vast, and unlike electricity, it is a hard-to-abate sector with limited options for reducing emissions. RNG is a proven, drop-in replacement for fossil natural gas that can be used at blends of up to 100% without requiring changes to downstream appliances. EVs are generally considered the future for light-duty transportation, but not for heavy-duty due to heavy loads and long distances being out of reach of battery technology. While diesel fuel still dominates this other huge and hard-to-abate sector, over the last couple of decades RNG has become an established and significant low carbon and carbon-negative alternative. But to realize the full potential of the RNG opportunity, the industry must address the bottleneck in landfill gas upgrading.
The gold standard for methane recovery in anaerobic digester (AD) gas upgrading is 99.5%. In contrast, methane recovery of landfill gas upgrading systems can be as low as 80%, or up to 95% under restricted conditions if project developers are willing to absorb much higher costs. This disparity isn’t just a technical curiosity—it’s a fundamental barrier to making RNG projects more accessible and scalable. Project developers are forced to choose between affordable systems that limit project revenues and expensive systems that strain project economics. Quite simply, today’s state-of-the-art landfill gas upgrading technology is too costly for the performance it delivers.
Why does landfill gas upgrading lag behind? The answer lies in the gas composition. Landfill gas, in contrast to AD biogas, generally contains large and variable amounts of oxygen and nitrogen, which are much harder to remove than carbon dioxide, the primary constituent found in all biogas after methane. The extra complexity can double the gas upgrading system capital expenditure for landfill gas applications compared to biodigester projects and dramatically erode methane recovery performance. Fewer technology providers are able to tackle these challenges, because of the need for specialized skills, deep industry knowledge and the ability to combine the right kind of technology elements in an integrated way that optimizes the complex interactions among them.
Solar panels and electric vehicle batteries have seen dramatic cost reductions over the past decade, driven by innovation, scale, and competition. Landfill gas upgrading systems, however, have not followed this trend. The lack of cost curve advancement means that operators are still stuck with the same trade-offs they faced years ago. For RNG to fulfill its true promise as an essential tool in the growth of clean, decarbonized and resilient energy, gas upgrading industry participants must break this cycle and deliver high performance at lower prices.
The need for innovation manifests differently across regions, and each has its own drivers. Let's examine three major markets, the United States, Canada and Brazil.
United States: Recovery and Investment Optimization
Recent tariff and policy uncertainty have created pause for investment flows into many greenfield RNG projects. The U.S. market, which has seen rapid buildout and growth of RNG volumes, now faces saturation in the transportation sector, into which 90% of RNG volumes currently go. When investment dollars return and fleets adopt the new Cummins X15N engine that now addresses about 95% of trucking applications, project developers will need LFG upgrading technology that maximizes methane recovery without inflating project costs, making their more projects viable and investable.
Canada: Infrastructure Development Pace
Canada’s federal government has set an ambitious goal for Canada to be the world's leading energy superpower, in both clean and conventional energy and to build at speeds not seen in generations. RNG is uniquely positioned to support this ambition, but adjustments to existing policies are needed to catalyze change. Canadian RNG projects need at least the level of support enjoyed by U.S. counterparts. Technological innovation and government policy are essential to making Canadian RNG projects attractive for investors and to be in the national interest by contributing to clean growth and meeting Canada’s objectives with respect to climate change.
Brazil: Economic Competitiveness
In Brazil, RNG or “biomethane” does not enjoy the same price levels derived from its environmental attributes that it does in the U.S. or Canada and therefore must compete directly with high-cost local fossil fuels. Without the same level of policy support to enhance project economics, only larger-scale projects tend to be the ones that achieve the cost efficiencies needed to be viable. Size matters—projects must go big to pencil out. Success depends entirely on achieving high performance at low cost, as there's no other path to profitability. The Brazilian market is flush with investor enthusiasm and deployable capital but needs innovation in landfill gas upgrading to unlock project development at scale.
The analysis across three major RNG markets reveals a striking convergence: despite vastly different economic and policy environments, all are demanding the same fundamental breakthrough in landfill gas technology. The United States needs it for market recovery and project optimization, Canada requires it to support ambitious infrastructure goals, and Brazil demands it for pure economic survival without environmental attributes valued. This simultaneous pressure from multiple markets represents an unprecedented opportunity for technological advancement. When diverse markets with different drivers all point to the same solution, it signals that the industry has reached a tipping point where innovation is no longer optional—it's essential for survival and growth.
The transformation of landfill gas upgrading technology will unlock the full potential of the largest segment in RNG production. Project developers and investors who recognize this shift early will be positioned to capitalize on projects that were previously uneconomical. The question facing the industry is not whether this breakthrough will happen, but how quickly stakeholders will adapt to the new performance standards that make RNG truly competitive across all market conditions. The era of compromise between cost and performance needs to come to an end.
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