Landfill Gas Extraction Well Design Techniques & Methods

Landfill Gas Extraction Wells: Stop Guessing. Start Designing With Confidence.

Turn your next gas field design into a proven, optimised system – instead of an expensive experiment.

If you’re responsible for landfill operation, closure, aftercare, or gas-to-energy projects, you already know this:

When landfill gas extraction wells are badly designed, everyone pays – in odour complaints, compliance headaches, fire risk, and lost energy revenue.

This 60-page, practitioner-level ebook – “Landfill Gas Extraction Well Design Techniques & Methods” – distils 30+ years of real-world landfill engineering into a practical guide you can apply on your next project.

🎯 Perfect for:
Landfill managers • Consultants • Design engineers • Regulators • Gas-to-energy developers.

Imagine Having Clear Answers to Questions Like:

• How close should my wells really be – and how do I know they’re not too far apart?
• When should I go vertical, when horizontal, and when do I need a hybrid system?
• How do I design wells that still work after 10–15 years of settlement, flooding and biofouling?
• What’s the realistic capture efficiency I can expect – not the sales brochure number?
• How do I minimise oxygen intrusion and fire risk while still pulling hard enough for good capture?

This ebook walks you through all of that – with practical design thinking, not just theory.

What You’ll Gain From This Ebook

By the time you’ve read it, you’ll be able to:

• Design extraction wells that actually perform
  Understand spacing, depth, radius of influence, gravel packing, and sealing in a way you can apply on a real site tomorrow.
• Avoid the most expensive design mistakes
  Learn how to prevent oxygen intrusion, subsurface fires, flooded wells, and chronic clogging issues before they happen.
• Optimise gas capture – not just “tick the compliance box”
  Design systems capable of capturing up to ~85% of operating-period methane emissions in well-designed phases – and understand why lifetime capture is realistically lower.
• Confidently choose between vertical, horizontal, or hybrid systems
  Know when each approach wins – for active filling, closed cells, high leachate zones and awkward geometries.
• Integrate LFG design with leachate and energy recovery
  Use combined trenches, dual-purpose wells and site-specific strategies to reduce costs and improve overall environmental performance.
• Have better conversations with regulators and stakeholders
  Speak the same language as regulators, justify your design choices, and demonstrate that your system is built on recognised good practice.

Inside “Landfill Gas Extraction Well Design Techniques & Methods”

Here’s a taste of what’s covered in the 60 pages:

1. Why Extraction Well Design Matters

• The climate case for landfill gas control and why methane matters
• How well design underpins everything else: odour control, migration, energy, and compliance
• Realistic expectations: what collection efficiencies are achievable in practice, and why lifetime capture will always be less than the “headline” numbers

2. Essential Components of a Wellfield

• Extraction wells, laterals, headers, blower/flare, energy plant – how the pieces fit together
• Perforated riser design, pipe diameters, and materials selection (HDPE vs PVC vs stainless vs GRP)
• When you shouldn’t gravel-pack a riser – and why sometimes letting the “wellhead rise” relative to settlement is smarter

3. Vertical Wells: Still the Industry Workhorse

• Typical dimensions: bore diameters, perforation zones, and target waste depth
• Good practice for well spacing (e.g. 100–300 ft) and what actually drives that choice
• Gravel pack design: sizes, installation methods, and how to avoid bridging and dead zones
• Sealing the upper section to prevent air ingress – bentonite, GCL, grout and practical details that make the difference on site

4. Horizontal Wells for Active Landfills

• When horizontal collectors beat verticals (active fill, high leachate, interim cover areas)
• How to install during filling without creating future headaches
• Getting slopes right for condensate – and why 1 in 30 may not be enough once settlement hits
• Practical details on penetrations through side slopes and gas membranes

5. Hybrid & Integrated Systems

• Combining vertical and horizontal wells for complex geometries and long timeframes
• Herringbone layouts feeding into verticals to reduce side-slope penetrations
• Integrating gas and leachate collection in shared trenches – what works and what to watch out for

6. Site Assessment & Radius of Influence

• How waste composition, moisture and topography really affect design
• Using ROI testing and monitoring probes to determine well spacing based on data, not guesswork
• How to adjust designs when tests show smaller (or larger) influence than expected

7. Avoiding the Classic Failure Modes

• Oxygen intrusion, hot spots and subsurface fires – and how to stop them
• Managing differential settlement: telescoping wells, flexible boots, movement allowances
• Biofouling and clogging: design tricks and maintenance provisions that keep gas moving
• Dealing with high liquids in wells and low-lying areas

8. Advanced Techniques for Difficult Sites

• Options for low permeability waste, very deep sites, and high water tables
• Directional drilling, dual-phase extraction, and site-specific adaptations
• Approaches for older, declining gas sites and transitioning to passive systems

9. Installation & Quality Control

• Choosing the right drilling methods and rigs for waste, not just soil
• Key QA/QC checkpoints: borehole dimensions, gravel placement, seals, and documentation
• Safe working in a gas environment – and why ATEX and proper risk assessments matter

10. Monitoring, Tuning & Optimisation

• Practical wellfield balancing routines and target gas compositions
• Using data (flow, pressure, CH₄, CO₂, O₂, temperature) to spot problems early
• Maintenance schedules that keep performance high without wasting budget

11. Regulation, Compliance & Energy Projects

• How design links to EPA / regulatory requirements and surface monitoring
• Design considerations when your LFG is feeding engines or RNG plants
• The economic upside – how better wellfield design supports business cases for energy recovery

…and much more, including a FAQ section that deals with lifespan, costs, monitoring frequency and realistic expectations for performance.

Why This Guide Is Different

This is not a generic textbook chapter or a vendor brochure.

It’s written by Steve Last, Chartered Waste Manager (MICWM), who has:

• 30+ years of hands-on landfill and gas utilisation experience
• Designed and overseen multiple landfill completion and restoration schemes
• Worked across feasibility, design, build and optimisation stages
• Spent decades dealing with regulators, operators, and real-world operational constraints

You’re not getting theory in isolation – you’re getting the applied judgement of someone who has watched what works and what fails over decades.

Who This Ebook Is For

You’ll get the most value if you are:

• A landfill manager or operations supervisor responsible for gas control and aftercare
• An environmental / civil engineer designing landfill infrastructure or closure schemes
• A consultant expected to specify, review, or audit gas extraction systems
• A developer / investor in landfill gas-to-energy projects wanting to understand the technical risk
• A regulator or permitting officer who wants to understand what “good practice” design really looks like in the field

If you’re looking for a very basic “what is landfill gas?” leaflet, this is more advanced than you need.
If you want practical, engineering-level guidance you can apply, you’re in exactly the right place.

How Much Is Poor Well Design Costing Your Site?

The cost of this ebook is tiny compared with:

• A single call-out to investigate odour complaints
• One badly flooded well that never performs
• A design that locks in poor capture efficiency for 20+ years
• Lost revenue from an under-performing gas-to-energy plant

For less than the price of a fraction of a day’s consultancy, you get a complete, structured guide that you can re-use on every future project.

[Insert your price and “Buy Now” button / link here]
Instant PDF download • 60 pages • Practical design guidance

What You Get When You Order

• ✅ Instant digital download – start reading within minutes
• ✅ 60 pages of focused, landfill-specific content
• ✅ A reference you can keep on your desk and return to for each new site or expansion
• ✅ Contact details if you later decide you need project-specific consultancy