About

Len Hanson, President of Norseman Engineering, standing next to at Inukshuk statue outside of Whistler Olympic Village.

Since 1986, Norseman Engineering Ltd. has been designing and implementing systems for the recovery, management, extraction, and utilization of landfill gas throughout the province of British Columbia and Canada. By supplying local businesses a viable alternative energy source, Norseman provides local economic opportunities by reducing overall energy costs. Norseman, through its projects and operations, simulates employment in the local community by hiring a local workforce in the development, building, and operation of its projects, improves public safety by mitigating potentially dangerous methane ground migration, and protects the environment as a whole by reducing greenhouse gas emissions by thousands of tonnes every year.

Landfill gas is a naturally occurring by-product of landfills due to its production by a number of different strains of methanogenic bacteria via the anaerobic decomposition of organic wastes. The composition of landfill gas is approximately 40-60% methane with most of the remainder being carbon dioxide. It also contains nitrogen, oxygen, and other organic compounds in small amounts. It is this compositional similarity to natural gas that makes landfill gas a viable alternative energy source.

Len Hanson checking a monitoring well at the Whistler Athlete's Village Migration Control Project

Landfill gas is collected and extracted from landfills by way of a series of wells, pipelines and compressors that make up a landfill gas extraction system. Norseman Engineering Ltd. has been at the forefront of designing and building these systems on a number of small and medium-sized landfills throughout the province of British Columbia over the past 25 years. The key to the economic viability of these systems is that they take advantage of the proximity of the landfill to industrial users with a high-energy demand, allowing the use of landfill gas to be a viable fuel source for local industries in a competitive gas market.

In addition to the economic benefits of providing a cheaper energy source to local businesses, Norseman Engineering Ltd. has placed importance on providing proper landfill gas management through building protection systems to ensure the health and safety of the local community and environment. The methane component of landfill gas, is not only an energy source, but can be a dangerous explosion hazard if it migrates outside of the landfill and onto the site of local properties. Owners and occupants of these properties are often unaware of this risk, as landfill gas migration is a gradual process that occurs over a long period of time. Norseman Engineering Ltd. provides migration detection services and building protection systems to mitigate this risk.

Norseman Engineering Ltd. has been a leader in promoting landfill gas use from an environmental standpoint. Landfill gas, its two major components methane and carbon dioxide, is a powerful greenhouse gas contributing to climate change. By providing its use in local industries, Norseman has allowed for many thousands of tonnes in greenhouse gas reductions which would have otherwise been released into the atmosphere. In 2000, Norseman Engineering was the first business to deliver emission reduction credits to the Greenhouse Emission Management Consortium (GEMCo), a group of Canadian energy companies focusing on market-based ways of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.