Utilizing landfill gas (LFG) to electrify digital data centers in China for accelerating energy transition in Industry 4.0 era

The volume of landfill gas (LFG) produced during municipal solid waste (MSW) decomposition in local landfills has increased rapidly in recent years. To promote circular economy (CE) applications through resource recovery, this article investigates the feasibility of utilizing LFG as a sustainable energy to power data centers (DCs) in Xiamen (China) and evaluates the implications of waste heat reuse on the energy consumption of DC. The objective of this study was to investigate the environmental impacts and economic benefits of this scheme based on a SFC model. With respect to its novelty, LFG is utilized as an energy supply to DCs, while the waste heat generated in the energy production is recovered. The socio-economic benefits generated in this process are also elaborated. It was found that a large number of MSW was completely recycled to generate energy. The LFG enterprise could benefit from energy sale, while the energy satisfied the annual demand for DC power consumption. Utilizing this energy output resulted in the reduction of primary energy and less CO2 emissions. By reusing the waste heat for domestic heating, the energy efficiency could be improved, while primary energy could be further saved, avoiding more CO2 emissions. This implies that utilizing LFG output and waste heat to power DCs not only facilitate resource recovery from unused resources to improve energy efficiency and obtain socio-economic benefits, but also promote the digitalization of DCs and sustainable development of urban cities in the framework of CE.

Automated summary

This article investigates the possibility of using landfill gas (LFG) as a sustainable energy source to power data centers (DCs) and evaluates the impact of waste heat reuse on energy consumption. The study found that utilizing LFG and waste heat not only improves energy efficiency and reduces CO2 emissions, but also brings economic and social benefits, promoting sustainable development.