Researchers are planning to extract gas that has built up under a landfill site in Wiltshire and use it for heat, power and CO2 in a growing dome to create ideal year-round growing conditions for crops.
When organic waste such as food scraps, paper and garden waste break down in a landfill site, it typically decomposes anaerobically due to a lack of oxygen. This process, driven by naturally occurring microorganisms, produces landfill gas mainly composed of methane and carbon dioxide that cannot easily escape once the landfill site has been capped.
The Royal Wootton Bassett Crapper and Sons landfill site is now planning to produce purified CO2, captured from the landfill gas-to-power process, which will be pumped into newly erected bio-secure growing domes to promote photosynthesis.
Three times the size of a standard tennis court and twice the height of a London double decker bus, the positively pressured growing dome will be trialled and tested over the coming year. It will use a mix of...