Brunner Landfill Uses Waste Gas to Power Reliable Leachate Treatment with 95% Volume Reduction and High Uptime
CHALLENGE
Brunner Landfill in New Sewickley Township, PA, generates over 20,000 gallons of leachate each day. Its aging submerged combustion system—installed in 2005—had become unreliable, costly, and prone to corrosion and downtime.
Site operators needed a more robust, fully automated solution that could:
- Use landfill gas as the primary energy source for leachate evaporation
- Maintain performance despite variable gas and leachate flow rates
- Operate with minimal staffing and remote monitoring
- Seamlessly integrate with existing gas flare systems
- Be installed and commissioned with minimal site disruption
SOLUTION
Heartland installed a Concentrator with a capacity of 24,000 gallons per day tailored to Brunner’s operational needs. The system was paired with a flexible landfill gas flare to ensure uninterrupted gas destruction—even when the Concentrator is offline.
Engineered for corrosion resistance and operational flexibility, the Heartland Concentrator was delivered with:
- Full automation, remote monitoring, and alarm notifications
- A web-based dashboard and daily reports to support off-site operations
- Simple integration with Brunner’s existing infrastructure
- Smart gas control systems to manage fluctuations in landfill gas supply
RESULTS
Since commissioning in 2015, the Heartland system has:
- Delivered >95% volume reduction of landfill leachate
- Operated with >95% equipment availability
- Required only one operator for both the evaporator and other landfill operations
- Run continuously for two weeks between cleanings
- Achieved full installation and startup in just 4 weeks
The Brunner team played a key role in optimizing system integration and performance during commissioning, helping to demonstrate the flexibility and reliability of the Heartland Concentrator in a real-world landfill environment.
Download the full case study to see how Heartland’s technology helps landfills turn waste gas into a dependable leachate treatment solution.
