To illustrate this end-to-end approach, Waga Energy has created a six-part video series showcasing the expertise that supports every project throughout its lifecycle. These short videos highlight the work of our teams across site assessment, project development, financing, engineering and construction, operations and maintenance, and biomethane commercialization.

Together, they provide a comprehensive overview of how Waga Energy helps landfill operators unlock the full value of their landfill gas resource through long-term partnerships and proven expertise.

Financing is strategic because investment is at the very core of our business model. We finance the construction of our biomethane production units, known as WAGABOX®, ourselves. Once operational, these units generate recurring revenue through long-term contracts (typically 10 to 20 years), either from the sale of biomethane or through a gas upgrading service provided to the landfill operator supplying the unit with biogas.

This financing includes two major innovations.

Our financial partners value our business model because it generates strong, recurring, and predictable cash flows. We operate our production units under contracts that can extend for up to 20 years.

The maintenance operation was prepared several weeks in advance. Tasks were identified, parts ordered, teams mobilized, and logistics organized down to the smallest detail. The previous week, containers carrying tools, personal protective equipment, and the parts required for the work were delivered to the site, along with several pallets of consumables and spare parts. Once the WAGABOX® unit is shut down, the clock starts ticking.

"Maintenance operations are scheduled every 8,000 operating hours," explains Matthieu Rouvière, one of Waga Energy's traveling maintenance team leaders. "We overhaul compressors and other equipment in accordance with manufacturers' recommendations. Our work covers both preventive maintenance and corrective operations that can be planned during the annual shutdown. Depending on the type of maintenance, the number of interventions required can vary significantly."

Beyond preventive maintenance, these planned shutdowns also provide an opportunity to upgrade units already in service. Innovations developed by Waga Energy's Research & Development and Process Engineering teams are progressively rolled out across the existing fleet.

"Innovations integrated into the latest generations of WAGABOX® units are installed on units already in operation whenever it makes sense to do so. That's what we call revamping," continues Matthieu Rouvière.

This approach reflects one of the key principles of Waga Energy's business model: the company does not simply design and install its units. It also operates, monitors, maintains, and continuously improves them throughout the duration of each contract. This comprehensive responsibility enables Waga Energy to leverage experience gained from every site, continuously improve fleet performance, and provide customers and partners with a high level of reliability.

Maintenance shutdowns may also be used to conduct regulatory inspections, particularly on pressure equipment. These inspections are carried out by an independent organization in compliance with applicable regulations. In some cases, tanks must be emptied to allow for inspections and leak-tightness tests before the unit can be returned to service.

As always at Waga Energy, safety remains the number one priority. Every day begins with a safety briefing to review procedures, identify potential risks, and coordinate activities.

"We sometimes simulate emergency situations, such as a worker becoming ill while elevated on a lift platform, to ensure the entire team remains vigilant and maintains the right reflexes," says Matthieu Rouvière.

At Chatuzange-le-Goubet, the WAGABOX® unit was brought back online after four days. The schedule was met. But the work does not end there. The following week, a lessons-learned meeting is held at headquarters. Every operation is reviewed and evaluated to identify what worked well, what could be improved, and which insights should be incorporated into future maintenance campaigns.

This continuous improvement process becomes increasingly important as the WAGABOX® fleet continues to grow. With units operating in France, Spain, Canada, and the United States, maintenance teams now work at a sustained pace. Operations follow one another continuously, sometimes with two maintenance shutdowns taking place in the same week, always driven by the same objective: work quickly, efficiently, and safely.

"We have made tremendous progress over the past few years," observes Matthieu Rouvière. "Our technicians have become highly experienced on our installations. They know these operations inside out, and everything now runs like clockwork."

Thanks to this rigorous organization, the commitment of its teams, and its complete control over the operating chain, Waga Energy is able to guarantee 95% availability across its WAGABOX® fleet. This industrial performance is at the core of Waga Energy's promise: producing more biomethane, maximizing the value created at landfill sites, and making a tangible contribution to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

The evolution of European regulations, structured by Directive 2008/98/EC, clearly aims to drastically reduce waste generation and to systematically recover any recoverable fraction, whether through material recycling or energy recovery. Landfilling is therefore reserved for residual waste — that is, waste that can no longer be reused, recycled, or otherwise recovered. 

However, all treatment streams — sorting, recycling, composting, anaerobic digestion, and incineration — generate non-recoverable residues. Some of these non-hazardous residual waste streams still contain an organic fraction that cannot be recovered by upstream processes. 

Energy recovery from landfill biogas is a full-fledged waste recovery pathway in its own right. Once landfilled, organic matter naturally degrades and produces biogas, mainly composed of methane and CO₂. Methane is a greenhouse gas with a global warming potential far higher than that of carbon dioxide. It is therefore essential to capture, manage, and recover this biogas in order to limit atmospheric emissions and reduce the climate impact of landfill sites. 

Among the various recovery pathways available today, biomethane production stands out as the most effective and efficient solution, both from an energy and climate perspective. It produces biomethane of equivalent quality to natural gas, which can be directly injected into distribution or transmission networks. It also ensures optimal energy efficiency, higher than that achieved when biogas is used to generate electricity. Biomethane improves the environmental performance of landfill sites by substituting fossil fuels in high-emission sectors such as transport and industry. 

A landfill site equipped with an efficient gas capture system — capable of effectively controlling diffuse emissions — and an advanced purification solution producing biomethane becomes a genuine energy recovery pathway for the residual organic fraction (which cannot be recovered in agriculture). 

Landfill cells fitted with effective containment systems operate like unmixed digesters; the degradation of buried waste can be optimized through leachate recirculation practices (bioreactor landfill). The energy production of such a landfill site becomes comparable to that of anaerobic digestion units treating biowaste. 

However, biogas production lasts much longer — more than 20 years — because the organic matter is “diluted” within a mass of plastic and inorganic materials. For this reason, long-term biogas capture (during and after cell filling, and even after site closure) is a key challenge in landfill gas management and in maximizing the energy recovery potential of residual waste. 

Thus, when the landfill sector integrates sustainable biogas management and biomethane recovery, it fully assumes its role within the energy recovery chain of waste treatment. My colleague David Agudelo-Romero and I contributed to an article on this topic in Annales des Mines (January 2026 issue, No. 121), which shows how upgrading biogas into biomethane repositions non-hazardous waste landfilling at the heart of the energy transition. 

In September 2024, the U.S. EP issued enforcement alerts highlighting recurring compliance issues at municipal solid waste landfills, including excess surface emissions, deficiencies in GCCS design and maintenance, and inadequate cover integrity.

For landfill owners and operators, methane capture is no longer just an operational goal. It is central to environmental compliance, odor control, community relations, and the long-term value of landfill gas-to-energy and renewable natural gas projects.

What determines how much methane a landfill emits? The answer depends on more than gas generation alone. It also depends on how effectively that gas is collected, controlled, and used. The following five factors are among the most important drivers of landfill methane emissions and of capture performance.

The amount of waste placed in a landfill is one of the strongest drivers of methane generation. More waste generally means more gas potential, but composition matters just as much as volume.

Organic materials break down under anaerobic conditions and produce methane. Landfills receiving higher percentages of food waste, paper, cardboard, sludge, and other biodegradable materials typically generate more landfill gas than sites dominated by construction and demolition debris, ash, industrial residuals, or other lower-organic waste streams. This is why two landfills with similar disposal tonnage can have very different methane generation profiles.

This distinction is especially important for RNG development. A project depends not only on total waste-in-place but also on the biodegradable fraction of the waste, the age of disposal, moisture conditions, and the expected gas-generation curve over time. Models such as EPA LandGEM are commonly used in the United States to estimate landfill gas generation.

For RNG projects, waste characterization affects facility sizing, long-term flow forecasts, expected methane concentration, project economics, and the ability of future landfill gas production to support expansion. A site with continued MSW disposal may support a very different RNG profile than a landfill with similar tonnage but a large historical share of inert or low-organic material.

Even a high-gas landfill cannot perform well without a properly designed gas collection and control system, or GCCS. Engineering design determines whether generated methane has a practical pathway for collection or is more likely to migrate through the waste mass and escape to the surface.

Vertical wells need appropriate spacing, depth, screen interval, and seal construction to influence the waste mass without creating excessive air intrusion. In active filling areas, however, permanent vertical wells are not always practical because waste grades are still changing and heavy equipment is operating nearby. This is where horizontal collectors can play an important role. Installed beneath or within active cells, horizontal wells can help capture landfill gas earlier in the filling sequence, including gas migrating toward the working face or recently placed waste that has not yet received permanent cover. While open working faces will always be harder to control than closed or intermediate-covered areas, thoughtful use of horizontal collectors and coordinated filling practices can reduce fugitive emissions before the final vertical wellfield is installed.

Header pipes and laterals must be sized for current and future flows, and condensate management features such as sumps, knockouts, drip legs, and low-point drains must be located where liquids can be removed before they restrict gas movement.

Design also directly affects RNG project performance. RNG facilities require a reliable supply of landfill gas, but landfill gas quantity and composition are constantly changing. Waste age, filling sequence, cover conditions, atmospheric pressure, liquids, temperature, and applied vacuum can all affect gas quality and flow.

Poor well coverage, undersized piping, flooded laterals, inadequate condensate control, or limited blower capacity can restrict recoverable flow long before the gas reaches the RNG facility.

Operations and maintenance (O&M) may be less visible than design, but in practice, they are often the difference between a system that performs on paper and one that performs in the field.

The O&M team is the last line of defense against methane emissions. A landfill can have strong engineering, proper well spacing, adequate blower capacity, and well-designed piping, but if the GCCS is not actively operated and maintained, performance will decline. Landfills change every day. Pumps fail. Condensate traps flood. Header lines settle or become pinched. Wellheads get damaged by equipment. Wells in active areas need to be raised. Sumps lose their function. Liquids accumulate in wells and laterals, reducing available vacuum and limiting gas movement through the waste mass.

When these issues are not quickly identified and corrected, methane capture suffers. A flooded lateral or watered-in condensate trap can reduce vacuum to an entire section of the wellfield. A damaged wellhead can pull oxygen into the system or reduce effective extraction. A pinched or settled header can restrict flow even when the wells themselves are capable of producing more gas.

Strong methane control requires coordination between the landfill owner, the GCCS O&M team, the landfill operations team, and, where applicable, the RNG facility operator. Filling plans, cover placement, grading, stormwater management, leachate management, and GCCS maintenance all affect gas collection. If those teams are not aligned, gas capture can be compromised even when each group is doing its own job correctly.

RNG projects can also create a positive feedback loop. When landfill gas has long-term economic value, there is a stronger incentive to invest in wellfield expansion, condensate management, monitoring, preventive maintenance, and system optimization. Better GCCS performance can mean more methane captured, fewer fugitive emissions, improved odor control, and more feedstock available for RNG production.

Landfill gas tuning is where engineering, field conditions, data, and operator judgment come together.

At a minimum, landfill gas wells are typically evaluated for methane, carbon dioxide, oxygen, balance gas, temperature, flow, and applied vacuum. The technician must then decide whether each well should be opened further, held steady, or backed off. That decision directly affects whether methane is captured and conveyed to a control device or allowed to migrate and potentially escape through the landfill surface.

There is no universal formula for tuning a landfill gas well. Each landfill behaves differently, and often each well does as well. One well may respond well to additional vacuum and produce more methane-rich gas. Another may begin pulling oxygen at a very small increase in vacuum, suggesting poor cover, a compromised seal, a shallow screened interval, or another air intrusion pathway. A third may show strong methane concentration but low flow, indicating that gas is present but restricted by liquids or settlement.

Good tuning is not simply “pull harder.” It is controlled optimization. The goal is to maximize methane recovery while avoiding conditions that can create compliance or operational problems. This balance becomes even more important for RNG projects. Some upgrading technologies are sensitive to nitrogen and oxygen, which can pressure operators to reduce the vacuum to improve inlet gas quality. But reducing vacuum too aggressively can leave methane in the landfill, increase fugitive emissions, reduce total energy recovery, and create odor or compliance issues.

The best RNG project is not necessarily the one with the cleanest inlet gas on paper. It is the one that captures the most usable methane while maintaining environmental compliance and stable long-term operations.

Cover integrity is one of the most overlooked drivers of landfill methane emissions. Even when a gas collection system is well designed and properly operated, methane can still escape if the daily, intermediate, or final cover is cracked, thin, poorly compacted, or otherwise compromised. Surface defects can create preferential pathways that allow gas to bypass collection wells and vent directly to the atmosphere. In active disposal areas, maintaining cover quality can be especially challenging because traffic, settlement, weather, and ongoing filling activities constantly disturb the surface. Strong cover practices are therefore not just about odor or housekeeping—they are a critical part of methane control.

Reducing landfill methane emissions is not about one single fix. It requires accurate waste assumptions, sound GCCS design, disciplined maintenance, skilled field tuning, strong cover practices, and a well-coordinated beneficial-use strategy.

For RNG projects, methane capture is the foundation of project performance. A landfill gas upgrading facility does not create methane; it creates value from methane the landfill is already generating. The opportunity comes from collecting more of that methane, controlling it effectively, and upgrading it into pipeline-quality renewable natural gas that can replace fossil natural gas in existing infrastructure.

As regulatory scrutiny increases and methane monitoring becomes more transparent, the best-performing landfills will be those that treat methane capture as both a technical discipline and an operational priority.

Operating a renewable natural gas (RNG) facility on a landfill offers an opportunity to transform waste into valuable energy while prioritizing safety and environmental stewardship. At Waga Energy, emergency preparedness is at the core of operations, supported by a comprehensive and proactive approach to managing potential risks. These include handling flammable gases, managing pressure systems, addressing environmental considerations, and ensuring safe operations in the unique context of landfill environments.

• Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment
• Safety Monitoring Equipment
• Site-Specific Emergency Plans
• Training and Education
• Continuous Preventative Maintenance

Before breaking ground on a project, Waga Energy conducts a comprehensive Hazard and Operability Study (HAZOP). This administrative control identifies potential risks, evaluates their severity, and determines appropriate mitigation measures. The process involves communication with and contributions from multiple stakeholders to ensure thoroughness and accuracy.

By leveraging the expertise of all parties involved, Waga Energy thoroughly analyzes process deviations, equipment vulnerabilities, and site-specific risks. The HAZOP study also facilitates compliance with regulatory requirements and industry best practices, reinforcing the company’s commitment to safety and environmental responsibility.

The following items break down the Waga Energy HAZOP process in more specific detail:

Key Participants

• Internal Teams: Waga Energy’s engineers, safety specialists, and project managers collaborate to identify site-specific hazards and assess risks. Regular internal meetings provide a platform for discussing potential issues, reviewing past incidents, and brainstorming mitigation strategies.
• Landfill Owners and Operators: Coordination with landfill personnel is critical to understand site-specific conditions, existing safety measures, and operational challenges. These discussions help integrate the biogas facility’s plans seamlessly with the landfill’s processes.
• Additionally Involved Entities: Engagement with additionally involved entities, such as gas companies or vendors, ensures alignment on pipeline safety, gas quality standards, and emergency response protocols. These companies provide valuable insights into best practices for managing potential site-related hazards.

Steps in the Risk Assessment Process

1. Identifying High-Risk Scenarios: Potential hazards such as explosive atmospheres, toxic gas exposure, and equipment malfunctions are systematically identified.
2. Analyzing Site Conditions: Evaluating environmental factors, operational workflows, and potential points of failure to determine risk severity.
3. Consulting Stakeholders: Input from landfill operators, gas companies, and emergency responders enriches the risk assessment process with diverse perspectives.
4. Developing Mitigation Strategies: Detailed plans are created to address identified risks, such as installing specialized safety equipment, enhancing monitoring systems, or implementing procedural safeguards.
5. Re-evaluation: Any newly developed mitigation strategy is placed back into the assessment and re-evaluated using the same criteria as before. If the mitigation effort successfully lowers the risk to an acceptable level, then that strategy is complete. If it does not, the cycle continues until an acceptable level is reached.

Outcomes of the HAZOP Process

• Customized Safety Measures: Implementation of controls tailored to the specific risks of each facility.
• Enhanced Communication: Clear protocols for sharing information between internal teams, landfill operators, and external partners.
• Continuous Improvement: Lessons learned from previous projects are integrated into future risk assessments to refine safety practices.

This collaborative and iterative approach ensures that all potential hazards are addressed comprehensively, fostering a safer operational environment for all involved, both directly and indirectly.

Continuously monitoring the atmosphere onsite for explosive, toxic, or asphyxiation hazards, is critical for onsite personnel safety, and emergency notification.

Collective Protection Equipment: Fixed Gas Analyzers

• Purpose: Continuous monitoring of gas concentrations in critical areas throughout the inside of the WAGABOX®.
• Features: Real-time alerts for hazardous levels of methane, hydrogen sulfide, and carbon dioxide.
• Integration: Automated systems that trigger ventilation and alarms, and unit shutdown with biogas rerouting, when dangerous conditions are detected.

Personal Protective Equipment: Personal Gas Monitors

• Use: Portable devices mandated to be worn by workers onsite when the plant is operational, to detect exposure to harmful gases in real-time. Specialized lone worker monitors are also used when employees are onsite alone.
• Capabilities: Multi-gas detection, audible and visual alarms, and vibratory alerts for immediate action. The lone worker monitors also include GPS monitoring, real time alerts to internal monitoring personnel in the event of alarms, falls, lack of movement, and more, allowing remote help to send emergency personnel as necessary.
• Advantages: Direct protection for workers, particularly in confined or high-risk areas. The lone worker monitors also allow for remote safety monitoring, ensuring all employees are safeguarded

Site-Specific Emergency Plans

While hazard mitigation and emergency preparedness begins with the HAZOP process, it is essential to have a contingency plan in place in the event that things go wrong. Each Waga Energy site has a Site-Specific Emergency Plan. These plans are developed well before construction begins, ensuring readiness from the outset. The process involves coordination with landfill operators, local fire departments and emergency response teams to incorporate site-specific considerations.

Each plan includes critical components such as:

• Incident Response Procedures: General instructions and detailed steps for addressing specific emergencies such as uncontrolled fire events, significant gas leaks, explosion of a vessel, gas leaks, asphyxiation risks, hazardous material spills, inclement weather, and more.
• Designated Muster Points and Shelters: Coordination takes place with the landfill owner to use locations that they have either already designated, or that they approve of. These clearly marked locations allow for personnel to gather during emergencies, including inclement weather shelters, are added to the plan, and communicated to all applicable personnel.
• Contact Information: Detailed lists of key personnel, local emergency responders, medical facilities, poison control, relevant onsite vendors, and environmental protection agencies are not only added to the plan but are posted throughout the facility in various locations. This helps ensure that no matter who is onsite, they know who to reach out to in the event of an onsite emergency.

Personnel onsite are thoroughly trained on these plans, ensuring they understand their roles and responsibilities in mitigating risks and responding to incidents. To be a resource and assist visitors, emergency posters are strategically placed throughout the facility. These provide quick-reference guides that outline steps to take and who to contact in the event of injuries, gas leaks, or other emergencies.

Plans are reviewed periodically and updated as necessary to ensure accurate information.

Collaboration with Emergency Responders

A critical aspect of Waga Energy’s emergency preparedness is the collaboration with local fire departments and emergency responders. Usually in conjunction with the landfill, initial and periodic safety presentations are conducted to help familiarize these community stakeholders with site-specific hazards and controls. These presentations include:

• General Site Information: Overview of the facility’s operations, hazard potential, equipment locations, and safety features.
• Emergency Stops and Alarms: Location and functionality of these key systems.
• Site Layout: Maps and diagrams to aid emergency responders in navigating the facility.

By fostering clear communication and coordination, these efforts ensure that first responders are well-informed and prepared to act efficiently during emergencies on Waga sites. This collaboration extends to regular meetings with gas companies and other relevant entities to maintain alignment on safety protocols and responsibilities.

Environmental and Community Safety

Emergency planning at Waga Energy facilities extends beyond protecting personnel to include safeguarding the environment and surrounding communities. Uncontrolled emissions or spills can have devastating consequences, making environmental protection a top priority. Measures to address these concerns include:

• Environmental Response Plans: There are many regulations regarding environmental protection and contingency plans. Waga Energy maintains compliance with these regulatory requirements, creating the appropriate plans and procedures well in advance of a unit becoming operational, and maintaining and updating those plans accordingly, throughout the operational lifetime of the facility.
• Spill Containment and Response: Systems and procedures to prevent and manage leaks or spills of hazardous materials.
• Air Quality Monitoring: Continuous tracking of emissions to ensure compliance with environmental regulations.
• Community Engagement: Open communication with local communities to build trust and awareness of safety measures.

Training is a cornerstone of Waga Energy’s safety culture. Employees undergo extensive training to familiarize themselves with the hazards and controls specific to their site. Training programs include:

• Hazard Awareness: Understanding the properties and risks associated with gases and materials on-site.
• Emergency Response Procedures: Step-by-step guidance on how to act during various emergency scenarios.
• Equipment Operation: Proper use of safety technology and PPE to mitigate risks.
• Consistency Across Sites: Standardized our units and training ensures uniformity and reliability of safety practices across all facilities.

Ongoing education keeps personnel informed about new safety technologies, updated procedures, and evolving regulatory requirements. This continual improvement helps maintain a high standard of safety and preparedness.

The last component in our ongoing effort regarding emergency planning is continuous preventative maintenance. Utilizing online maintenance programs that send reminders and provide informational references, our maintenance team keeps our WAGABOX® equipment running smoothly and safely. This not only minimizes down-time, but also ensures that the equipment is operationally safe, contributing to mitigating risks of equipment failure, lowering the possibility of emergency situations onsite.

Emergency preparedness and hazard mitigation are foundational to Waga Energy’s operations at landfill renewable natural gas facilities. By developing comprehensive site-specific plans, leveraging advanced safety technologies, fostering collaboration with emergency responders, training, and continuous maintenance, the company ensures a proactive approach to safety. While proactive measures require time and effort, they ultimately save significant resources and prevent avoidable harm.

These efforts not only protect personnel and the environment but also enhance operational reliability and community confidence. By prioritizing prevention and preparedness, Waga Energy aims to set a high standard for safety in the renewable energy industry.

Landfill gas-based biomethane benefits from a structural cost advantage, as no dedicated anaerobic digester is required—the biological decomposition process naturally takes place within the landfill. This reduces upfront capital expenditures and production costs, allowing RNG to be supplied at a competitive and attractive price over the long term. 

Enhanced extraction mode

The blower draws in the LFG at a high rate and maintains the vacuum in the landfill at a high level. It helps to reduce odor nuisance but can increase the concentration of air up to 30%.

Recovery mode

The blower keeps the vacuum at a constant, low level. If the valves are precisely controlled and the LFG collection network is sufficiently airtight, the air content can be kept to below 15%.

In practice, landfill operators often need to combine these different settings according to the production level of the different cells and the various, sometimes conflicting, constraints: methane recovery, odor nuisance reduction, polluting emission reduction, etc.

This technology emerged in the US during the 1990s. The goal of bioreactor landfills is to speed up organic matter degradation and stabilize waste by enclosing it in a confined chamber and irrigating it with landfill run-off water, or so-called leachate. This system stimulates microbial activity while also diluting any inhibitors (ammonia, salts, sulfur, etc.). When the cell is covered with an airtight membrane, a bioreactor needs to be installed to enable the organic matter to decompose and prevent the waste from becoming “mummified”.